Penumbra: The Tale Of Rigel
by itsthatguy
Summary: The story of a wild Eevee named Rigel and his friends searching for their place in the wide world of Pokemon.
1. Chapter 1

The young Eevee was running as fast as his little legs could carry him. Branches scratched at his face, and rocks tripped him up every few steps, but he didn't care. All he could think about was escape, and the terrible buzzing behind him coming closer and closer.

Up ahead on the forest path was a clearing. Seeing this, he ran even faster to escape pursuit. He broke into the clearing and kept running as fast as he could, not slowing down even as he swam across the small stream dividing it. Not daring to look behind him, he ran back into the woods on the other side of the clearing, and did not stop until he spotted a hollow log lying on the ground. Thinking it was his only chance for safety, he dove into the log and sat there shivering, waiting to be discovered as the horrid buzzing drew nearer.

Suddenly the buzzing started to get quieter, and slowly faded into the distance. Carefully poking his head out from the log, the Eevee looked around at the trees, seeing nothing. He then quietly crept out of his shelter, listening for the slightest noise. Seeing that he was alone, he started to walk towards home, exhausted from his ordeal.

He walked through the deep forest, knowing every tree and every large rock. He has spent his entire life in these woods, and was familiar with every landmark. Soon the Eevee came across a fallen tree that was still being held up by the branches of two living trees nearby. This was what he was looking for, because he knew that from this tree, his home was only a short northward walk away.

After walking for a few minutes, the young pokemon saw his home burrow up ahead of him, so he picked up his pace and continued toward it. Suddenly he heard a rustling in the bushes on the side of the path and turned quickly to see what it was. All he could do was let out a short scream before a shadowy form pounced on him from the bushes.

"Rigel, you are such a coward." The young Eevee opened his eyes, and saw a familiar face standing above him with a smile. "First you chicken out when a Ledyba comes after you, then you get scared of little me?"

"That wasn't funny Meissa." the Eevee said as a he pushed his sister off of him. "And you didn't see the hunger in that thing's eyes!"

"It was hungry for the tree sap you got into, not for you dummy." Meissa said cheerfully. "Speaking of that sap, it looks like you got it cleaned off."

"Yeah, I took a little dip while I was gone. Good thing too, otherwise that monster would still be following me." Rigel said while looking around at the forest. "Anyway, we had better get home or mom and dad will be pretty mad."

"Ok, last one there there is a Trubbish!" Meissa said as she ran towards the burrow. "You won't beat me!" Rigel yelled as he also started running.

"Rigel, Meissa! What have I told you about staying out this late?" a large Umbreon said as he exited the burrow. "Don't do it." the two Eevees said while looking at the ground.

"That's right. You don't know what could be out there at night." the Umbreon said as he turned to go back into the burrow. "Now get in here and apologise to me and your mother for making us worry."

"Yes sir." said the Eevees as they followed him into their home. "Did you find them, Erakis?" an Espeon inside said as the Umbreon walked in. "Yes honey, I found them. Right outside the burrow."

"Alright, good." the Espeon said while letting out a sigh of relief. "What where you two doing? Haven't we warned you enough?"

"Sorry mom, I would have come home sooner, but I was chased by a terrible monster." said Rigel. "It was a Ledyba! That is not a monster!" said Meissa. "You're just a big chicken."

"Shut up Meissa, you didn't see it!" Rigel said angrily. "That's enough!" their father interrupted. "I want you two to stop arguing and apologise to your mother and I."

"Sorry mom, sorry dad." The siblings said together. "That's better." their father said with a smile. "Now how about we have some dinner? Your mother and I found some good berries today while you two were out goofing off." "Yes, please." Rigel said. All the running had made him very hungry.


	2. Chapter 2

After the family had finished eating, they went to the beds of grass in the back of the burrow that they used for sleeping. "Alright you two, tomorrow we are going to take you out foraging with us, so you had better get some sleep." Rigel's mother said as she layed down in one of the two beds.

"Aw come on mom, foraging is boring. Do we have to?" Rigel said as he sat down in the bed he shared with his sister.

"Yes, you do." said his mother sternly. "If you don't learn how to find food, then how do you expect to survive when you go off on your own someday?"

"Now, Caph" Rigel's father said. "Do we really need to be thinking of that now? It might be quite some time before that happens."

"Maybe, but it doesn't hurt to start early." said Rigel's mother. "That's enough talking for tonight, so everybody go to sleep."

"Yes ma'am." the siblings said as they layed down. Rigel moved around to try and get comfortable, before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep with the events of the day replaying in his mind.

"Rigel, wake up." Rigel eyes opened slowly upon hearing his mother's voice. "Come on wake up. You won't learn by just sleeping all day."

"Alright mom, I'm awake." Rigel said as he slowly stood up, before letting out a yawn and stretching. He then walked to the burrow's entrance, squinting his eyes so that he wouldn't be blinded by the morning sun.

"It took you long enough sleepyhead." Meissa said as Rigel exited the burrow. " I didn't think you would ever wake up."

"Well I'm up now, aren't I?" Rigel said, feeling slightly annoyed at his sister.

The forest was absolutely beautiful in the morning, with sunlight reflecting off of dew clinging to the trees and bird pokemon singing their songs happily. Rigel's father and mother stood near a small wooded path, waiting for him and Meissa to come to them.

"Alright, now that Rigel is here, let's go look for breakfast, shall we?" the siblings father said, walking down the path with their mother.

"Ok dad." Rigel said as he followed after his parents. He did not really want to go with them, but he didn't really have much of a choice.

"Well you two," said Rigel's father. "Today you are going to learn how to find food out here, so pay attention."

"Come on dad, can't we do this some other time?" Meissa said. "We don't need to know this stuff."

"Yes you do." said her father. "If you ever expect to go out on your own you have to learn, so stop complaining."

The family soon came to a small pond, and Rigel's father told him and Meissa to stay back as he got low to the ground and started slowly creeping towards the water. Suddenly he jumped into the water, then came back up to the surface with a small silver fish in his mouth. "And that is how you get fish." he said with a smile after putting his catch on the ground. "Stay low, and stay quiet. The little suckers won't know what hit them. I would have you try it, but I'm pretty sure I stirred them up quite a bit just now, so we should get started on those berries."

Rigel's mother and father then brought him and Meissa to a grove containing several large bushes, each one covered in brightly colored berries. Rigel looked through the bushes for berries he liked until he spotted his favorites, Tanga berries. "Hey dad, I found some some good ones!" he said before plucking a berry from the bush. He loved the taste of the berries, that mild spiciness with a hint of sourness. "Mmmm, that's good."

The rest of the day was spent learning where to find the best berries, how to tell if they were ripe or not, and which ones to avoid, such as the poisonous Shadni and Castreen berries.

"Ok everybody," said Rigel's mother. "I think it's about time we head home. We don't want to be out here at night."

As the family walked back from their outing, something off to the side of the forest path caught Rigel's eye. "What is that?" Rigel said to his father while motioning towards a large stone spire jutting up from the ground. The spire stood taller than all of the surrounding trees, and sported what looked like steps going around the sides, leading to a flat top. But what really made Rigel notice it was the color. The stone that made up the spire was a kind that Rigel had never seen before, containing beautiful patterns of black, white, and grey lines, and seemingly glowing in the fading light of dusk.

"I don't really know what that is." Rigel's father said in response to the question. "That stone has been around for as long as I can remember, but I don't know it's purpose, or if it even has one."

"Can we go look at it dad?" Rigel said. He felt as if the stone was beckoning to him, and he could not resist it's call.

"I don't see any harm in that, but be careful." said his father.

"Alright! Come on Meissa let's go see it." Rigel said excitedly as he ran towards the stone. It was even more beautiful up close. He stared at the intricate pattern of lines for a few seconds before he started to climb the steps running around the side of the stone.

"Rigel, I don't think you should go up there, you might fall." Meissa said to her brother from the ground.

"I'll be fine. Stop worrying." Rigel said back as he went higher, unsure why he was in such a rush to get to the top.

"Famous last words. What do you expect to find up there anyway?" said Meissa.

"I don't know, but if there is something I will find it!" Rigel called down. As he reached the top of the stone, he was left speechless by the view he got from it. He could see the tops of trees all around him, and a great smoking mountain in the distance. He had never seen anything like this in his life, and he stood staring out over the land for several seconds. Finding his voice, he yelled "Meissa, get up here, you need to see this!"

"Uh, no thanks, I'm fine down here!" Meissa yelled back.

Rigel let out a laugh. "Ha ha, now who's a chicken?"

"Alright you two, it's getting dark out!" Rigel's mother yelled "We need to be going home now."

"Okay mom, we're coming!" Rigel said before taking in the view one more time and walking back down the steps. After arriving back at their burrow, the family once again went to bed, with Rigel's dreams being filled with images of the stone.


	3. Chapter 3

Rigel woke up the next morning still thinking about the stone. It was just so beautiful, so mysterious, and so out of place. "I wonder what the Tarazed and Aludra would think about that rock." he said to himself. "I need to show them." With this thought in mind, he stood up from his bed, said goodbye to his parents, walked out of the burrow, and started towards a large tree not far from his home.

"Tarazed!" Rigel shouted up into the tree. "Tarazed are you awake?"

After a few seconds there was a rustling in the leaves of the tree, and a small bird came out onto one of the branches. "What? Huh... I am now. What is it Rigel?" the bird said sleepily.

"I found the coolest thing yesterday, you need to see it." Rigel said back, unable to hold back his excitement. "I'm going to show Aludra too, it's great."

"What kind of cool thing?" said the bird. "I'm curious."

"You'll see when I show it to you." Rigel said with a grin. "But I need to get Aludra too."

"Well alright." said Tarazed as he flew off the branch. "Let's go then."

Rigel and Tarazed traveled through the forest, stopping occasionally to pick berries for breakfast, until they came out of the trees into a clearing. The clearing was a large bare patch of earth with many cracked and scorched boulders along with smaller rocks scattered about.

"If I know Aludra, then she'll be here." Rigel said as he walked through the field of boulders. "Just have to listen." Soon he heard the sounds of stone being impacted by something hard. This was a sure sign that Aludra was around. "What did I tell you Tarazed, I knew she was here."

Soon he found the boulder the sounds were coming from, and walked around it to find his second friend, a bipedal creature with yellow fur that stood around twice as tall as him, repeatedly kicking the stone with flames coming from her leg.

Upon seeing Rigel and Tarazed, Aludra stopped striking the boulder and turned to greet them. "Hey Rigel, hey Tarry. What's up?"

"The sky." Tarazed responded, looking slightly annoyed. "And it's Tarazed, not Tarry."

"Whatever." Aludra said back. "As long as you know I'm talking to you, then who cares?"

Tarazed was about to say something, but Rigel interrupted before he got the chance. "Aludra, I found something yesterday, and you really need to see it."

"What is it?" said Aludra.

"Don't bother asking." Tarazed said. "He wouldn't tell me, he said he wants us to see it for ourselves."

"Keeping secrets Rigel?" Aludra asked. "I can't say I like secrets. Anyway, I'm supposed to be training right now, but I guess I could go see it. Lead the way."

"Shouldn't you tell your dad you are leaving first?" Rigel asked her. "You don't want to get in trouble do you?"

"I'll be fine." Aludra said. "I'm old enough that I shouldn't need to tell him."

"Oh really?" said a deep voice from above. Aludra quickly looked up to see her father standing on top of one of the boulders with a frown on his face. "Aludra, you are growing up, but you are still just a little Riolu, and you shouldn't be going off without telling me."

"Sorry dad, can I please go with them to see what they want to show me?" Aludra said to her father.

After a few seconds, a smile appeared on her father's face as he spoke. "You can go." he said. "But make sure you get back before dark."

"Alright dad, see you later." said Aludra as she walked towards the woods with the others. "I'll catch up on my training later."

Rigel, Tarazed, and Aludra had been friends for as long as any of them could remember. They were all born in this forest, and had spent their whole lives in it. They would often play together for hours, running or flying around the trees until they were all too tired to continue. "I'm telling you guys, this thing is awesome."Rigel said to his friends.

"We know." said Aludra."You've only told us about a thousand times. Where is this thing anyway?"

"Right over there." Rigel said upon seeing the stone ahead. "Come on." The stone looked just as it did the day before, with it's complex patterns and crude steps, towering over everything around it. "This is it" Rigel said with great excitement. "Isn't it just incredible?"

The three friends stood looking at the stone for several seconds before anyone said anything. "A rock?" Aludra said. "You dragged us all this way for a rock?"

"It's not just a rock." Rigel replied. "Look at it, it's more than just a rock."

"Uuh, Rigel." said Tarazed. "It's a rock."

"Yes, it's a rock!" Rigel said, starting to feel a little angry at his friends for what they were saying. "That's not the point, the point is that there is something about this rock!"

"It doesn't look very special to me." said Tarazed. "Are you alright Rigel?"

Rigel couldn't believe his friends weren't feeling what he was feeling, that strange attraction to the stone, that sense of peace when around it. "Alright guys." Rigel said with a sigh. "Sorry for wasting your time. Want to just play or something?"

"Sure, that sounds good." said Tarazed as he flapped his wings and took off. "Catch me if you can!"

Rigel and Aludra ran after Tarazed at full speed to try and catch him, with nobody noticing the large yellow eyes watching them from the trees.


	4. Chapter 4

Meissa woke up that morning to see that she was alone in the burrow. "Where is everybody? Am I the last one up?" she thought to herself. She was very surprised that Rigel could be up and about before her, because he usually slept much later. She stood up and stretched, then walked out of the burrow into the cool morning air, where her parents were talking to each other with sad looks on their faces. "Good morning." she said to them. "Where's Rigel?"

"He said he was going to play with his friends, and then ran off." said her mother. "Anyway, you're father and I have been discussing something and we're going to have to talk to you about it Meissa."

"Alright mom, what is it?"

Meissa's parents both looked at each other before her mother spoke. "We wanted to tell both you and your brother at the same time, but he went away before we got the chance. You two are growing up, and you may need to leave a bit earlier than we first thought."

"What? How could we leave now?" Meissa said, not believing what she was hearing. "We're only Eevees!"

"We're not saying you are leaving now, just soon." said her father. "You and Rigel are welcome to stay with us longer, but you have to go out and make your own lives eventually"

"Your father is right Meissa." said her mother. "You two have to go out into the world, grow up, and find your place."

"Fine!" Meissa said as she ran away with tears in her eyes. "If you want me gone I'll leave as soon as I can!"

"Meissa, wait!" her father said, but it was too late, she had already run off into the woods.

There wasn't much that Meissa liked more than the forest in the morning, and the sounds of the wind through the trees helped sooth the pain she felt because of her parent's words. "Why would they want us to go? Did we do something wrong? Ah, who cares, I don't need mom and dad, I'll be fine on my own." she thought to herself as she walked to her favorite spot, a small pool that she loved to visit. "I don't know about Rigel though. He may be bigger than me, but he won't do well if he doesn't get over his fear of bugs."

Soon she arrived at her spot, and saw two odd looking creatures swimming in the pool. One seemed to be some sort of amphibian, blue in color, and not much bigger than her, with small horns coming out of each side of it's head. The other was about the same size, but white in color, with green hair on it's head that covered it's eyes."Hi Yippy, hi Emily." Meissa said to the creatures. "How are you doing today?"

Upon hearing the greeting, the blue creature turned it's head towards the shore with a smile. "Hey Meissa, we're doing pretty good, how are you?"

"Not so good." Meissa responded. "My parents told me that Rigel and I will have to leave home soon, and I have no idea what I'm going to do." She did not really want to tell her friends about the talk with her parents, but she knew that if she kept a secret, Emily would know.

"Really?" Yippy said. "Are they sure you're old enough?"

"They seem to think so." said Meissa. "Besides, I don't I need them to take care of me any more."

"You're lying" the green-haired creature said quietly. "You doubt that you'll make it, I can feel it."

"Emily, what have I told you about reading my mind?" Meissa said angrily. "I don't like you looking at my thoughts."

"Sorry, Meissa." Emily said. "I couldn't help but notice your feelings. Can we help you in any way?"

"I don't need any help." Meissa replied. "I'll be fine."

"You're lying again" said Emily. "I'm sorry, but you can't hide what you feel."

"I've got an idea!" Yippy said with excitement. "We'll help you get tougher, so you can overcome anything that gets in your way!"

"I'm tough enough!" Meissa said, somewhat annoyed. "How would you help me anyway?"

"I'll just guess he doesn't know." said Emily.

"Of course I know. You think I would say something like that without having a great idea?" Yippy said back. "We'll all go climb The Hydreigon's Teeth. That should toughen us up."

"One problem Yippy." said Meissa. " That is a terrible idea. The stones at The Hydreigon's Teeth are just too dangerous to climb."

"It's true Yippy" said Emily. "That place is a deathtrap. My parents once told me about a Machop that tried to climb The Teeth for training. He was walking through the stones when he stumbled over a small rock, and it took him three days to get to the local Audino to get a shard of stone removed from his knee."

"Yikes, I never heard about that." Yippy said with surprise. "I guess now I don't know how we can help."

"It's alright guys" said Meissa. "I just want to take a swim and get my mind off of this."

"Okay then Meissa, if you say so." Yippy said. "Sorry we couldn't help you."

"Yeah, Meissa I'm sorry too." said Emily. "But I know you'll be able to make it on your own, I just know it."

"Thanks guys." Meissa said with a smile. "Now let's stop dwelling on this and go for a swim shall we?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Come on guys, you've got to be faster than that!" said Tarazed as he flew away from his friends. "Otherwise you're never gonna catch me!" Rigel and Aludra were running after Tarazed, laughing all the way.

"Yeah, you keep thinking that bird-brain!" Aludra said. "Just you wait!"

"We caught you every other time Tarazed." said Rigel. "What makes you think this time will be differ..." He then stopped running when he heard the sound of something big moving through the trees, and started to look around, trying to spot what it was. "Guys, stop. Do you hear that?" he said. "I don't think we're by ourselves here."

Aludra stopped and put her paw to her ear, listening for the sounds Rigel spoke of. "Yeah, I hear it. What is that?"

"Hear what? You're not gonna trick me into stopping guys!" said Tarazed as he kept flying. He could not hear what the other two could, the sound of something putting weight on the tree branches.

Rigel and Aludra stood gazing up into the trees, looking branch to branch, seeing nothing but leaves with sunlight coming through every now and again. Rigel heard movement again, and looked in the direction of the sound, where a dark figure perched in the trees caught his eye. As the figure began to move, Rigel let out a cry of fear. "Oh no, everybody run!"

A loud screech rang out from the trees as a green reptilian creature jumped down from the canopy towards Rigel with blinding speed. He took off in a run to try and escape, while Aludra stood paralyzed with fear for a split second before running away herself.

Though Rigel was running as fast as he possibly could, the creature was much faster, and the gap between the two was closing quickly. He ran through the underbrush, using his small size to go through and under obstacles that the creature would have to go over or around, but it was still catching up. Rigel ran through small shrubs and around rocks, until he saw a rotten log up ahead, the same one he had used a few days ago. He ran into the log and waited for his attacker. While he was scared out of his mind, he had an idea. He didn't know if it would work, but it was his only hope.

After running a good distance away, Aludra quickly looked back to see the creature chasing Rigel. She suddenly stopped and turned towards the direction that Rigel was running. "What am I doing?" she thought. "I can't just run away, I have to help Rigel." "Tarazed!" she called out. "Tarazed where are you! Rigel needs us!" Hearing this, Tarazed flew back to his friend to see what was going on. "What is it Aludra?" Tarazed said. "No time to explain! Follow me!" said Aludra as she ran after Rigel and the creature.

"Hiding, huh?" the creature said as he came to the log Rigel was in. "Don't you know that won't work? You must be desperate already." It then bent down to look into the log, and was greeted by Rigel kicking a cloud of dirt right into it's face. "Aaargh! You little son of a bitch!" It yelled as it tried to wipe the dirt out of it's eyes. Taking advantage of the distraction, Rigel then ran out from the log in the direction of his stone and tried to put more distance between him and the furious creature. He still wasn't fast enough to outrun it, but at least the dirt in it's eyes blurred it's vision and forced it to move a bit more slowly to avoid hitting anything.

"I was just looking for a quick meal, but no, you had to make it difficult!" the creature yelled angrily as it began chasing Rigel again. "Now you are going to get it!" Soon Rigel saw his stone up ahead. He didn't know why he was running to the stone, it couldn't help him, and he knew that the creature would catch up with him soon, but he couldn't help but run towards it. He could hear the creature's footsteps getting closer behind him, and he began to give up hope. "Alright little guy, if you just stop, then I promise I'll make it quick." the creature said. "There is no reason to make this harder than it has to b-AAAGH!" Upon hearing the creature's cry, Rigel looked back to see Aludra kicking it in the back of the neck, her foot wreathed in flames.

"Take that you stupid lizard!" Aludra said as she landed on the ground after the kick. "Don't you dare mess with my friend!"

The creature looked back at Aludra, with pure anger and hatred blazing in it's eyes. "Well, I guess my meal will be bigger than I thought!" It then spread out it's arms as the leaves on them began to grow longer and sharpen to a fine edge. "Oh, really?" said Tarazed as he flew up behind it and dug his talons into the burned spot. "I don't think so mister!" "Damn it, where are you all coming from?" The creature said as it thrashed around trying to shake Tarazed loose. Seeing his chance to fight back, Rigel ran toward the creature and buried his teeth into it's leg, twisting and pulling to open up a large wound. "Gah! I'll kill you all!" The creature said while still thrashing around. "And you can be sure it will hurt!"

"Yeah right!" said Aludra. "I'd like to see you kill us after this!" She then jumped into the air, her foot once again being covered in flames, and kicked the creature as hard as she could in it's face, leaving a nasty burn. The creature finally shook Tarazed off and gave out a terrible shriek, before slashing at Rigel with one of it's leaves. Rigel let go of the creature's leg and quickly moved out of the way of the leaf, before kicking more dirt into the creature's face and the wound made by his teeth, and biting down on the creature's leg again and again. Seeing her opening now that the creature was blinded by the dirt and pain, Aludra ran toward it, jumped high into the air, and smashed her foot into it's face, causing it to collapse into a motionless heap. "We did it." Rigel said, tired out from running. "We actually beat that thing." He then thought he heard a strange voice coming from behind him, causing him to turn and walk slowly to his stone, where he fell to the ground in exhaustion and was bathed in a bright light.


	6. Chapter 6

Meissa enjoyed swimming with her friends for hours, and the words of her parents were almost forgotten. She loved the water, and her mother always said she would make a great Vaporeon some day. But Meissa didn't want to think about the future, and the uncertainty she felt. She only wanted to think about the present, her and her friends spending the day together.

Her friend Yippy however, was thinking of the future. "Hey, Meissa" he said. "I know you didn't want to talk about this, but what will you do when you leave your parents?"

"I don't know Yippy." said Meissa. "I guess I could find a place to make my own burrow somewhere in the forest, but after that I just don't know."

"We can help you with that" Yippy said. "Right Emily?"

"Yeah, we probably could." Emily replied. "But that can wait until-" Emily was suddenly interrupted by a sharp cry from the forest, which caused birds to fly up from the trees in fear. "What was that?" she said with surprise.

"I don't know." said Meissa. "But it didn't sound close, so we should be fine."

"Ok then." Emily said before turning back to Meissa. "As I was saying, that can wait until later. Your parents probably aren't making you leave now, so you could still stay with them for a little while."

"I don't know if I want to stay with them if they want me gone." said Meissa. "If they don't want me there, I won't be there."

"I don't think it's that they don't want you there Meissa." Yippy said. "They just know that you need to go soon, and they want you to be ready."

"Yeah, maybe" Meissa said back. "I guess I kind of overreacted."

Another cry from the forest was heard, this one sounding a little different from the first.

"Whoever that is needs to be quiet." Meissa said. "Anyway, maybe I should go back home and talk to mom and dad."

"I think you should." said Emily. "They are probably worried about you since you ran away crying like that."

"Emily." Meissa said. "Stop with the mind reading."

"Sorry." said Emily. "Sometimes I just can't help it."

A third cry came from the forest, even louder than the other two, and now Meissa was really annoyed. "Shut up!" she yelled. "Nobody wants to listen to you!" Meissa then said goodbye to her friends and walked back into the woods towards her parent's burrow. There was still plenty of daylight left, but she felt that she needed to see her parents as soon as possible.

"What should I say?" she wondered to herself. "Should I apologize? They just want what's best for me, but does that really mean I have to leave?" She was unsure how her parents would react, and what they would tell her, but she knew the only way to find out was to speak to them. She soon arrived back at the burrow, where she was greeted by her mother, who was standing near the entrance.

"Meissa," her mother said, running over to her. "There you are, I had no idea where you went. I'm sorry if what we said this morning upset you."

"It's alright mom." said Meissa. "And I'm sorry I ran off like that." "Oh, don't worry sweetie." her mother said. "I don't blame you, it must have been quite a shock."

"Yeah, it was. But I think I can talk about it now." Meissa said. "Where's dad?"

"He went off to look for Rigel so we could tell him what we told you." her mother replied. "I guess he still hasn't found him."

Meissa thought of where Rigel might be, but couldn't remember any place that he usually stayed "Let's see." she thought. "He sometimes goes places with his friends, but what could he be doing?" Then it hit her. The stone. He seemed to be so attached to that stone, even though he had only saw it for the first time yesterday, of course he would go to see it again.

"Mom, I think I might know where he is." Meissa said. "He might be at that weird rock he found yesterday."

"What makes you think that?" asked her mother.

"I don't know." Meissa said. "He just really liked it, and that's the only place I could think of him being."

"Alright." said her mother as she started walking towards the forest. "Let's go see if he's there."

Meissa then followed her mother down the forest path in the direction of the stone, picturing Rigel sitting on top of it, looking out into the distance.

As the two were walking, Meissa thought to herself about Rigel. "I wonder how he'll take the news. Knowing him he'll just clam up and not talk to anyone. That's something else he needs to get over" Soon the stone was visible up ahead, but there was something different about it. It still stood high above the surrounding trees, but the patterns that were there yesterday had disappeared completely, leaving the stone a featureless grey, and Meissa couldn't see Rigel anywhere around. "Hmm... I guess he's not here." Meissa said. "We should probably go back home and see if dad found him."

"Maybe we should." said her mother. "They are probably waiting for us."

Meissa and her mother then started to turn back to the burrow, but stopped when a dark shape stepped out onto the path. Meissa let out a small cry, before realizing that the dark shape was her father. "Dad, don't do that! You nearly scared me to death!"

"Sorry Meissa." her father said. "I thought you and your mother would be back at the burrow waiting for Rigel."

"We were doing that." said her mother. "But Meissa thought Rigel would be here."

"Well apparently he's not." Meissa's father said back. "I haven't seen him anywhere, and it's starting to get dark. I'm getting a little worried."

"He should be fine." said her mother. "Meissa and I are heading back home. In about an hour you should come back too if you haven't found him. He wouldn't stay out after dark."


	7. Chapter 7

Rigel slowly opened his eyes to find himself standing on top the stone, and was dumbstruck by what he saw stretched out before him, images of fantastic beauty and things he only knew of because his mother and father told him about them, such as vast oceans, snowy wonderlands, and colonies of strange creatures living in structures of metal, stone, and wood. "What in the world?" he thought to himself as he gazed down onto the land. "I must be dreaming here, because there is no way." He then turned his attention to the sky, which was silver and cloudless, with what looked like electricity arcing across it. "Well, I guess there is one way to find out if I'm dreaming." he said before taking a breath and holding it. After about a minute, or at least what felt like a minute, without feeling any different, he let out his breath again. "Alright, I don't need to breathe, so I am definitely dreaming." He then looked around again, and walked down the steps of the stone, out into a wide meadow below.

He journeyed through the places he saw from the stone one by one in his dream, with each landscape being more wonderful than the last. But even as the places he explored changed, one thing remained constant. He would always see the stone on the horizon, even when it was supposed to be behind him, towering above all else, and shining beautifully in the light of the sun. The sight of the stone gave him a feeling of comfort, and a strange, oddly familiar voice seemed to speak to him, urging him to go forward and see all that the world had to offer. Suddenly the silver sky darkened, turning as black as pitch, and several large eyes began to stare down at Rigel as his mind began to feel like it was shrouded in fog. Unable to think clearly, he closed his eyes and tried to get his head together, and after what seemed like hours, he opened them again, and was greeted by two figures standing over him.

"Rigel, wake up." he heard Tarazed say. "Rigel, are you alright?"

Rigel looked up at his friends and tried to speak, but he couldn't seem to form any words.

"He looks like he's awake." said Aludra. "Rigel! Come to your senses!"

Rigel tried to move, but his body was unresponsive, and his head was swimming.

"Yeah, he's not getting up." Tarazed said before motioning toward a small yellow caterpillar climbing on a small bush. "Aludra, go get that Sewaddle over there."

"Hey little guy, I need you to come with me for a bit." Aludra said as she walked over to the small insect and picked it up. She then brought it over to Rigel and set it down next to him.

Seeing the bug next to him, Rigel jumped up, now in full control, and quickly backed away. "No! No! Get that thing away from me!"

"I knew that would do the trick." said Tarazed. "Ok little buddy, go on, continue what you were doing."

"Why did say you do that, you jerk! You know how I feel about bugs!" Rigel shouted as the Sewaddle crawled into the woods. He was about to continue yelling at Tarazed, but stopped when he noticed how much taller he was than the Starly, and how deep his voice had gotten.

He then looked down at himself, and was shocked at what he saw. "What the heck!" He said with surprise. "What happened to me!" He looked nothing like the Eevee he used to be. His formerly long, brown fur was now short and covered in swirling black and white patterns, and his body was now leaner and more strong.

"I would say you evolved." Aludra said calmly. "But I've never heard of an Eevee evolving into something like you."

"What!" Rigel cried. "How in the world did that happen! And why are you so calm about this?"

"My guess is it had something to do with the rock." Tarazed said as he pointed a wing towards the stone, which had lost it's strange patterns.

"What type do you think he is?" Aludra asked Tarazed.

"I don't know." he replied. "How can we find out?"

Aludra then walked over to Rigel and put her hand on her chin.

Rigel stepped backward quickly as a vision of Aludra hitting him flashed through his mind. "Don't you punch me! If I'm Steel, Rock, or Ghost we'll find out another way!"

"How did you know I would do that?" Aludra said with a confused look on her face.

"I don't really know." Rigel said back, thinking about what he just did. "I had a weird feeling."

"Maybe you're Psychic." said Tarazed. "Can you move something with your mind?"

"I don't know. I could try. But how would I do it?" Rigel said before focusing his gaze on a rock nearby. "Rock! Fly!" he shouted, but the rock didn't move. "Psychic!" the rock continued to sit without budging.

"Having trouble Rigel?" said Aludra. "You're supposed to be moving it with your mind, not your mouth."

"Oh, right." said Rigel, realizing his mistake. "Well I'll try this then". He then focused his mind and began to visualize the rock rising, and after a few seconds of staring, he saw it begin to slowly lift off the ground.

"Well, that looks like Psychic alright." said Aludra. "Try throwing it at that tree over there."

"Ok." Rigel said as he looked towards the tree. He visualized the rock flying into the tree at high speed, and after a few more seconds the rock started to vibrate, then rocketed straight up into the air.

"Looks like you need to work on your aim." said Aludra after the rock came back and hit the ground. "Don't want you hurting anyone."

* * *

For those who want to know, Rigel is now a Pokemon of my creation, the Dark/Psychic Eclipseon.


	8. Chapter 8

"Alright, I'll try this again." Rigel said as he picked up another rock. Once again he focused his mind, and thought about the rock smashing into the tree. This time the rock didn't even move, it just shattered into several pieces. "Darn it, why won't you go where I want you stupid rocks?"

"I don't think talking to the rocks will help Rigel." said Aludra."It's not like they can hear you."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Rigel said. "Man why couldn't I have evolved earlier? I probably could have wiped the floor with that Sceptile. Wait a minute, where is that Sceptile?"

Aludra and Tarazed looked back to see that the Sceptile they defeated had disappeared from the spot where it collapsed. "I guess he woke up and ran away." said Aludra.

"You guess?" said Rigel. "Don't you think you would have seen it?"

"I would have if I wasn't trying to get you to wake up." Aludra replied. "You were out cold."

"Well, how long was I unconcious?" Rigel asked.

"I'd say about twenty minutes." said Tarazed. "That was enough time for us to get over the fact that you had evolved, and then we tried waking you up. I may or may not have pecked you a few times."

"Twenty minutes?" Rigel said with surprise. "All the stuff in that dream happened in only twenty minutes?"

"What dream?" asked Tarazed.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Rigel said. "Anyway, what do you think my parents will say now that I've evolved?"

"Maybe you should go home and find out." said Aludra. "I think I need to go home too, and if I go now I can probably make it back before dark."

"Alright, bye Aludra." Rigel said as his friend walked away. "See you later. Watch out for that Sceptile."

"Hey Rigel." said Tarazed. "I'm kind of tired, and you're quite a bit bigger than me, so I was wondering, could I maybe ride on your back or something?"

"Are you that tired?" said Rigel. "You didn't seem to do much, and you had twenty minutes to rest. I think you just don't want to walk or fly, but sure."

Rigel and Tarazed then began their trip home, walking through the forest, Tarazed perched on Rigel's back, both of them glancing to the left and right as they went, and listening for the smallest noise.

"Do you think we should have gone with Aludra?" asked Tarazed. "What if she runs into the Sceptile?"

"She should be fine." said Rigel. "I think we beat it up pretty badly. Besides, she's the one who knocked it out isn't she? You need to have more faith in others Tarazed."

After almost an hour of walking, Rigel could see his home up ahead, but his family was nowhere in sight. "That's weird." he said as he looked around. "It's almost dark. Mom or dad would have finished their foraging by now, and they usually wait outside for Meissa and I."

"You should probably just wait for them." said Tarazed as he flew off of Rigel's back. "I'm going back to my tree. See you tomorrow Rigel."

"Bye Tarazed." Rigel said before entering his burrow. "Alright, hopefully they'll hurry back." Rigel spent about a half hour looking out the entrance of his burrow, thinking about the strange dream he had, until he saw his mother and sister coming out of the forest.

Rigel ran out to meet his family, but stopped when he saw his mother step in front of Meissa and take an aggressive stance. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" said his mother angrily as the jewel on her head began to glow.

"Wait, uh, I..." Rigel tried to speak, but couldn't manage to say anything. He always hated confrontation, and seeing his mother ready to attack him effectively rendered him mute.

"Answer me! Who are you!" she said again. Rigel still couldn't get himself to speak, he could only stand there and stutter. Suddenly a multicolored beam of psychic energy shot towards Rigel from his mother's jewel, but dissipated as it hit him.

With that, Rigel was finally able to force himself to speak. "Mom! It's me, Rigel!"

"What, Rigel?" said his mother as the light from her jewel faded. "What happened to you?"

"I think I evolved mom." Rigel said. "I have no idea what I am now, but that weird rock made me evolve."

"Wow," said Meissa as she walked up to him. "That should help you out a lot once you go out on your own."

"What are you talking about Meissa?" said Rigel. "When was I leaving?"

"Well son," said his mother. "Sometime soon you need to leave and make your own life."

"Go forward and find what the world has to offer..." Rigel said quietly, remembering his dream.

"Yeah, you could put it like that." said his mother. "And now that you have evolved, that should be a lot easier. Let's go inside, we can talk more there. Your father should be back soon."

The family then walked into the burrow and spent most of the night discussing Rigel and Meissa's future, before going to their beds to rest up for the next day. Rigel could not sleep though, the bed he used to sleep in was now too small for him to get comfortable, so he could only lie awake and think about the things that had happened that day. "I guess tomorrow I will tell Tarazed and Aludra about this." he thought. "I wonder how they'll take it." After what felt like hours, Rigel finally fell asleep, with images of the stone filling his dreams once again.


	9. Chapter 9

"Oh come on, again?" Rigel said as he stood on the stone. "Well, at least it's still looks nice up here." The large open meadow was still around the stone, but the scenery beyond had changed to fields full of tall crystal formations shining with a blue light, and the sky was now grey with clouds moving across it. "Well, I guess I'll go walking again." Rigel thought." Nothing else to do in this dream apparently." He then descended down the stone's steps and walked out into the meadow, where he saw an Eevee standing far away from him. "Who is that?" Rigel thought as he tried to go to the Eevee, but no matter how much he walked, he wasn't getting any closer. Suddenly his path was blocked by several dark figures as another one slowly moved towards the Eevee, causing a look of terror to appear on it's face. Rigel tried to get past the figures, but before he could, the figures and the Eevee disappeared as his mind began to fog again and he closed his eyes.

Opening them again, Rigel found himself in his burrow with the blurred memory of his strange dream fading from his mind. He was still tired from all that happened yesterday, and he had to use much of his willpower to get up instead of going back to sleep. He looked around his home , which was lit up by the morning sun, and saw that his family had already got up and gone out. After walking out of the burrow himself, he let out a loud yawn and was greeted by his parents, who were standing outside the entrance.

"Good morning Rigel." his mother said with a smile. "I assume you are going to see your friends."

"Good morning mom." Rigel said. "Yeah, I wanted to tell them about me leaving some time."

"Alright, see you later sweety." said his mother.

"Bye mom." Rigel then walked towards Tarazed's tree to tell him the news. "Tarazed!" he called up like he usually did. "Tarazed, have to tell you something!"

After a few seconds Tarazed came out onto a branch and looked down at his friend. "Hello Rigel, how did it go with your parents?"

"Pretty good I'd say." Rigel replied. "They seemed excited by the fact I evolved, and they said that it may be about time I left home."

"Really?" asked Tarazed. "Well, I guess you're lucky that they actually told you. My parents just up and left when they thought my brothers and I were ready."

"Yeah, maybe I am lucky." said Rigel. "How are Altair and Alshain doing anyway?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen them in a while." said Tarazed. "But if I remember right they still don't get along well."

"Sorry to hear that." said Rigel. "Anyway, I'm going to go find some breakfast and go see Aludra, do you want to come with me?"

"Alright, give me a second." said Tarazed as he began staring at another tree. Suddenly he flew from his branch and snatched a small insect off of a leaf. "Ok, that's some of my breakfast. Let's go."

Rigel and Tarazed walked through the forest until they found the grove of berries Rigel's father had brought him to the other day and ate their fill. They then continued on, and soon they arrived at the boulder-filled clearing, where they saw Aludra with her eyes closed in a meditative stance atop one of the large stones.

"Hey Aludra." Rigel called out. "What are you doing?"

As they approached her, she opened her eyes and jumped down from her perch. "Hey guys," she said. "What's going on?"

"Well," said Rigel. "I talked to my parents, and they told me that now that I've evolved, I need to be ready to go out on my own soon."

"What?" Aludra said in disbelief. "My dad says I'm not ready to leave yet, and I'm tougher and more ready than you or Tarazed."

"At least your dad will tell you when it's time." said Tarazed. "My parents waited until me and my-"

"Yeah, we know, they left without telling you. Apparently they left a bit too early." said Aludra. "Because I don't know how many times we've had to save you. Remember that Larvitar that almost ate you last week?"

"We agreed we would never speak of that." Tarazed said angrily. "Besides, if that didn't happen you wouldn't have met that other Riolu you like, would you?"

"L-like?" said Aludra as she began to blush. "I don't care about him! How do you expect me to like someone who passes out when just watching a fight?"

"I don't know." Rigel said. "I could have sworn I saw you sneaking glances at him whenever he looked away."

"I was not!" said Aludra, getting very irritated. "You guys don't know what you're talking about!"

"Alright Aludra, whatever you say." Rigel said with a grin. "Anyway, if I'm leaving soon, I'll need to practice with my new powers. Do you guys want to help me?"

"Fine." Aludra said. "But no more mentioning Chase, alright?"

"So you remember his name?" said Tarazed as he started to laugh. "Apparently you do care about him."

"Shut up Tarazed!" Aludra said angrily. "I am perfectly capable of doing the same thing I did to that Sceptile yesterday to you!"

"You mean when you jumped up and kicked it in the face?" said Rigel. "That was awesome, but can we go instead of arguing all day?"

"Why would we need to go anywhere?" Aludra said. "We've got plenty of rocks and things you could practice on here. I'll let you use them if Tarazed will be quiet.

"Alright, alright." said Tarazed. "No need to be so touchy."

After a bit of looking around, Rigel found a good sized rock and began to focus. Once again he pictured the rock rising and hitting it's target, causing it to slowly float up off the ground and then shoot back down with enough force to leave a small crater. "Freaking rocks!" Rigel yelled in frustration. His inability to throw the rocks where he wanted was really starting to get annoying.

"You should try something else." said Aludra. "Psychic doesn't seem to be working for you."

"But what else could I do?" Rigel said. "I don't know how to do other psychic moves."

"Maybe my dad could help you." said Aludra as she turned toward her home. "He's not psychic, but he knows a lot more than you and me. I'll get him. Hey, dad! Could you come here please?"

Soon Rigel saw Aludra's father jumping across boulders on his way to them. From what Aludra had told him about her father, Rigel knew that he was very experienced, and he probably knew of several techniques that a psychic could use, even if he couldn't.

"What is it Aludra?" he said before looking at Rigel. "Who's this?"

"Dad, you remember my friend Rigel right?" asked Aludra. "Well, he evolved and this is him."

"H-hello sir." Rigel said, somewhat intimidated by the Lucario. He had spoken with Aludra's father before, but still was not completely comfortable around him.

"Anyway," said Aludra. "He needs some help getting used to the new abilities he got from evolving. We know he's psychic, but he can't actually use Psychic, so we need to figure out what he can do."

"Hm, alright." said Aludra's father as he put his hand on his chin. "Have you tried Psybeam or Psyshock?"

"Um, no sir." Rigel said. "I don't know how."

"You don't need to call me sir." said Aludra's father. "Asterion will do. Anyway, for Psybeam you just focus your energy and will it to strike something."

"Um, ok Asterion." said Rigel as he closed his eyes and focused his psychic energy. He then envisioned a beam of that energy going forward into a nearby boulder. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it as the energy released itself, hitting the boulder without really doing any damage.

"That didn't seem to work." said Aludra's father. "Let's try something different, like Psycho Cut. You just do the same thing as Psybeam, but you focus your energy in front of you in a wave."

Rigel focused again, determined not to fail this time. He did as Aludra's father instructed, forming a crescent shaped wave before sending it flying toward one of the nearby boulders. The wave tore through the rock with little effort, and left it lying in two halves on the ground.

"Looks like you can actually use that one." said Aludra's father. "Good job."

"Oh shoot." Rigel said. "I'm lucky it didn't just fly randomly and hit someone. Why didn't I think about what could happen?"

"Because you are a bit clueless sometimes." said Tarazed.

"Thank you, Tarazed." said Rigel in a sarcastic tone. "That was very helpful."

"Sorry, I just call them like I see them." Tarazed said.

"You shouldn't think about what could happen." said Aludra's father. "It will just mess up your concentration. Now, while you are practicing this, I'm going to go continue my aura training. Aludra, you should come with me. You'll never make a good Lucario if you can't use aura well."


	10. Chapter 10

Rigel fired off a second Psycho Cut, which sliced another rock in half just as easily as the first one. "Wow, this is a lot easier than Psychic." he said. "I guess I just need to practice with it more."

"Does that mean you'll be throwing things again?" asked Tarazed.

"Yeah, of course" Rigel replied. "How else could I get better at it?"

"Alright, in that case I'll be over here." said Tarazed as he walked behind a nearby boulder.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence Tarazed." Rigel said before picking up another rock. "Alright you stupid thing, go where I want you." This time the rock stayed in the air for not even one second before crumbling into dust. "How is it that I can do things like that to these rocks, but I can't even throw them?"

"Who knows?" said Tarazed. "Maybe you just need to avoid using Psychic."

"No, I am going to get this down if it's the last thing I do." Rigel said. He held the next rock off the ground for a few seconds, but quickly dropped it when a small orange creature emerged from a hole in it's side. "For the love of Arceus, stay away!" Rigel said as he quickly backed away from the creature, which had an angry look on it's face.

"Rigel, it's just a Dwebble. Calm down." Tarazed said as he walked toward the creature. "Why are you so freaked out by bugs anyway?"

The creature turned it's attention towards Tarazed, still looking quite angry, and threw a small rock which barely missed him.

"What the?" he said. "I didn't do anything, why are you attacking me?"

The Dwebble didn't seem to be paying any attention to what Tarazed was saying, and tossed another rock, which struck him in the chest.

"Ow, darn it! Fine then you little pest, let's go." Tarazed flew off the ground and circled in the air above the Dwebble, which nearly hit him again with one of it's stones. "Hey Rigel, could you help me out here?"

"You can do this yourself can't you?" Rigel said, trying and failing to hide his fear. "As you said, it's just a Dwebble, you don't need me."

"Seriously Rigel? Ok, I guess I'm on my own, but let's see you hit me now." Tarazed then began to fly faster, leaving illusory copies of himself in his wake. The Dwebble quickly looked around in confusion, before throwing more rocks at what it thought was Tarazed, which simply passed through their targets.

"Alright, I need to get rid of that armor if I want to do anything." said the Tarazeds as their wings began to gleam like metal. "This should do just that." Suddenly they all made a dive towards the Dwebble, which braced itself for for the hit, but upon reaching it the copies faded, while the real Tarazed was nowhere in sight. The Dwebble frantically tried to see where the Starly had gone, but was then struck from behind by his Steel Wing, which shattered it's stone shell. Tarazed then flew back and hit the Dwebble again, making it roll end over end until it hit a boulder.

The Dwebble, now completely enraged by the loss of it's shell, began quickly throwing rocks into the air, but Tarazed was easily able to dodge them due to the fact that the Dwebble didn't even bother to aim.

"Ok, it's just a little bug." Rigel was thinking to himself. "Tarazed needs my help, so I need to stop cowering over here and do something. Maybe I should..."

The Dwebble was still throwing rocks and not allowing Tarazed to get close, when a look of shock appeared on it's face as it began rising off the ground.

Tarazed saw that the Dwebble was now flailing about in the air trying to get free of Rigel's hold, and used this distraction to dive down and strike it as hard as he could with his outstretched wings, knocking it out cold. "And that is why you don't mess with me." said Tarazed as he landed back on the ground. "Thanks Rigel."

"No problem." Rigel said. "I just wanted to get that thing away as quick as possib-ah!" Rigel had to close his eyes as he was interrupted by a blinding light coming from Tarazed. When the light faded, the small bird had doubled in size, and gained a curled crest. "Tarazed?" Rigel said. "You evolved too? Wow."

"I guess so." Tarazed said as he looked down at himself. "Man, Aludra is going to be mad now that we've both evolved before her."

"Um, yeah." said Rigel. He knew that it was still Tarazed he was talking to, but he couldn't help but feel unnerved when looking at him. "Maybe we should go tell her."

"Wait a minute." said Tarazed. "I'm a bit hungry again." He then walked over to the still unconcious Dwebble, and delivered a killing blow with his beak.

"Ah! Why did you do that?" Rigel said as he suddenly felt a mixture of anger, sadness, fear, and searing pain.

"I just said that I'm hungry." Tarazed said. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know." said Rigel, still feeling the pain. "I just... Darn it that hurts. Never mind, I'm going to tell Aludra, you just do what you were going to do, I don't want to see it."

The pain Rigel felt slowly began to fade before he found Aludra training among the stones, breaking them using focused aura energy. "Hey Aludra, I've got something to tell you about Tarazed."

"I'm busy Rigel, not now." said Aludra, trying to concentrate. "I'm pretty sure there's not much I need to know about Tarazed that I don't already."

"Alright." Rigel said. "I'll tell you how he beat up a Dwebble, evolved, and killed it later."

"What?" Aludra said in surprise. "Where is he? How could you both evolve before me? I'm going to talk to my dad, be back in a second." She then quickly walked back to her home where her father was sitting in meditation. "Dad, when will it be time for me to evolve?"

"Be patient Aludra." her father said without even opening his eyes. " You will be ready soon. "

"How do you know I'm not ready now?" she said. "You've never even told me how I would evolve."

"Fine, if you want to know, I'll tell you." her father said as he opened his eyes. "Some Riolu live with strange creatures called humans. These creatures sometimes befriend pokemon and help them grow stronger, and when the bond between a Riolu and it's human is strong enough, the Riolu evolves."

"Are there any humans around here?" asked Aludra. "What if I don't find one? Where did you find a human to evolve you?"

"There are no humans around here as far as as I know, and I have never met one. I used a different method to evolve, which you would probably have to use." said her father. "Wild Riolu have to find Aura Stones, strange gems contain large amounts of concentrated aura energy."

"Really? Where could I find one?" Aludra asked. "I'm ready to evolve, I know it. Please tell me."

"They can be found in the nearby mountains." said her father. "If you truly think you are ready, then you have to go and find one."

"I'm ready." said Aludra. "Tomorrow I will get one of those stones."


	11. Chapter 11

"Guys, I need your help with something." said Aludra as she approached her friends. "Tomorrow I'm going to go into the mountains to find an Aura Stone, and I could find one a lot faster with you two looking as well."

"Yes I evolved, thanks for noticing. Anyway, an Aura Stone you say?" said Tarazed. "What in the world is that?"

"It's some kind of rock." said Rigel. "She wants to find it so she can evolve."

Aludra looked at Rigel with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Have you forgotten already?" said Rigel. "I'm psychic, I can read you. I don't really know how though, and I can't do it to Tarazed for some reason."

"So, do you know where we should look?" Tarazed asked. "Or are we just going to be wandering randomly?"

"According to my dad they're in the mountains." said Aludra. "But we'll worry about it tomorrow."

"Alright," said Rigel. "If we are not going to worry about it, what should we do now?"

"Didn't you tell me you were going to leave home soon?" Tarazed said. "Maybe we could do something about that."

"Yeah, that sounds good." said Aludra. "I think I know a few good places you could set up a burrow."

"Thanks guys." said Rigel. "I think Meissa was going to do that too, and while I won't be leaving right away, looking for a new place wouldn't hurt. Lead the way Aludra." The three friends then walked into the trees, determined to find a home for Rigel.

"Any idea of what you're looking for in a burrow?" said Aludra as she walked toward a small pond. "How about here? I'd say it's a nice place."

The pond and the area around it were very nice and peaceful, with tall trees surrounding it and several berry bushes scattered about.

"I don't know." Rigel said. "I think this was the place that the Tangrowth incident happened, and I don't really want to risk running into that thing. But I'll look around."

"Hoo boy, that Tangrowth." said Tarazed with a shudder. "Why did you have to remind me?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." said Aludra. "Oh well, at least that Deerling wasn't seriously hurt. Ok, let's lokk and then move on."

Rigel walked around the pond and looked through the bushes, seeing all sorts of good things, including the dark green berries he loved. "Hey, Tanga berries!" he said. "I'm thinking this is a nice spot. And here's a place I could dig a burrow!"

"Don't you think you should look around a bit more before deciding?" said Tarazed.

"Why?" Rigel said as he began moving dirt with his paws. "This place is great. But alright, let's move on for now."

After several more minutes of walking, the three passed through a clearing where they saw an Eevee, Ralts, and Wooper running through the tall grass. "Hey Meissa!" Rigel called out to his sister, who stopped and looked in his direction.

"Hi Rigel, what are you up to?" Meissa said as she approached her brother.

"I'm looking for a place to set up a home after I leave." said Rigel. "I think I've found a good place, but I'm looking around some more."

"You're already thinking about leaving?" said Meissa. "What, living with mom, dad, and I not good enough for you?"

"It's not like that." Rigel said. "I'm just getting ready early so I don't have to worry about it later. You're welcome to come with us and find a place for yourself if you want to."

"I think it would be a good idea to go with them Meissa." said Yippy. "You did say that you needed to find a new home. I need to be heading back to my pool anyway, I'm starting to dry up. Do you mind teleporting with me there Emily?"

"Not at all." said Emily as she put her hand on one of Yippy's horns. "So long Meissa."

"Alright, bye guys." said Meissa. "I'll see you later." Emily and Yippy then began to fade, and within seconds were gone. "Ok, I guess I'll go with you." Meissa said. "But it might get dark soon, so we had better get going." The next hour was spent looking through all the good spots to make burrows, but Meissa could not find a place she liked and Rigel still liked the area around the pond. Eventually, they gave up on their search and went back home, where their parents were waiting.

"There you two are." said their father. "We've got dinner here if you're hungry."

"No thanks dad," said Rigel "I already had something to eat while I was out looking for a new burrow"

"So, you're getting ready to leave? You know you can stay longer if you want to."

"Yeah I know, but why not start now? Anyway, I'm going to bed. Aludra wanted me to help her with something tomorrow, and I should probably try to get up early."


	12. Chapter 12

Rigel found himself on the stone again, looking down on the world. "Well, if it isn't this dream." he said to himself. "How many times am I gonna do this?" Once again the dream had changed, the sun above him, which was warm and pleasant in his past dreams, was now giving off oppressive heat and blinding light making him unable to see past the large meadow at the stone's base. Ignoring this, Rigel walked down the stone, again going out into the meadow and seeing something that he did not see in the first two dreams, a burrow out in the middle of it, seemingly miles away.

After what felt like hours of walking, he drew near the burrow, and stopped as the most beautiful thing he had ever seen emerged from it, a ceature with light blue fur, and what looked like multicolored gemstones covering it's shoulders, flanks, and forehead. But what really caught Rigel's attention were it's eyes, iridescent and sparkling in the light. "Um, uh, I..." Rigel tried to speak to the creature, but was captivated by it, and could only stand and stutter. The creature did not try to talk to Rigel, it only sat and smiled at him. Then, to Rigel's surprise, three Eevees ran towards him from the burrow and laughed as they ran in circles around him. "What the heck is going on here?" he thought to himself. Suddenly the blazing sun, the Eevees, and the creature all disappeared as Rigel's mind began to fog again, and he woke up from his dream feeling a strange , almost unbearable sense of loss.

"Rigel, what's wrong?"

Rigel opened his eyes, his vision blurry with tears, and saw his mother standing above him. "N-nothing mom, I'm fine." he said after a few seconds, wiping his eyes.

"Are you sure honey?" his mother asked with worry in her voice. "You were saying things in your sleep, something about taking something away."

Rigel struggled to remember his dream, but the memories slipped from his mind before he could grasp them. "It's nothing mom. Just nothing."

"Well alright, if you say so." said his mother as she walked back to her bed. "I'm going back to sleep then. Are you really sure you're alright?

"Yeah, I'm sure." After his mother had lain back down, Rigel stood up and walked out of the burrow into the cool night air to think. He sat gazing into the sky for hours, trying to remember what he had seen in the dream, but the only thing he could recall was the face of the creature he saw. Soon the sun began to rise on the forest, causing the stars to disappear and flooding the area around his home with soft light.

"Rigel, what are you doing?" said a voice behind him.

He turned around to see his sister walking out of the burrow, still looking sleepy. "Nothing Meissa, I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking about?" Meissa asked. "How long have you been up?"

"I got up a few hours ago, and I've been having weird dreams lately." said Rigel. "I can't remember everything that happens, but what I do remember just makes me feel strange."

"Well, they are only dreams." said Meissa "You shouldn't think about them too much."

"Maybe you're right." Rigel said. "But what I remember is just so real. I guess I need something to take my mind off of them. I wonder if Tarazed is awake."

"You should go see. I'll go with you if you want."

"Why would you want to go with me?" Rigel asked. "Shouldn't you be going to see your friends?"

"I can see them later." Meissa said. "Besides, you and your friends do a lot more cool stuff than Yippy and Emily, and I want to see what you guys are going to do today."

"Well alright, you can come along." Said Rigel as he began to walk toward Tarazed's tree. "But we'll be looking for rocks."

"Rocks?" asked Meissa as she walked behind Rigel. "Why would you be looking for rocks?"

"Well, they are special rocks," Rigel replied. "And Aludra needs one to evolve."

The two walked up to Tarazed's tree, and before Rigel could call his name, Tarazed came out onto his branch. "Hey Rigel, are we going to help Aludra with that thing?"

"Yeah, and Meissa is coming with us to help." said Rigel.

"Why?"

"No real reason, she just wants to come with us."

"Well, ok then. We should get going, you know how impatient Aludra gets."

Rigel, Meissa, and Tarazed traveled through the forest towards Aludra's home, listening to the sounds of the forest, and seeing other pokemon going about their lives.

Soon they walked into the rocky clearing, where Aludra stood waiting for them. "It took you guys long enough to get here." she said, sounding annoyed. "I know a good spot to look for Aura Stones, so let's go."

"It's nice to see you too Aludra." said Tarazed. "You said they were near the mountains, is it that same place we ran into Chase and Thuban?"

"It's near there." said Aludra. "But if we meet them, I'm sure Thuban wouldn't try anything after the beating we gave him last time."

"Who are Chase and Thuban?" asked Meissa. "I've never heard of them."

"They are two pokemon we met last week." said Rigel. "Thuban was a Larvitar that tried to eat Tarazed and Chase is his brother, a Riolu that Aludra has a crush on."

"I do not have a crush on him!" yelled Aludra. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Brother?" Meissa said, confused. "How could a Riolu and Larvitar be brothers?"

"I don't know." said Rigel. "He never really explained it. Anyway, let's go find one of those rocks."

After several minutes of walking, the friends came out of the trees, into the foothills of the great mountain that rose above their forest home. The hills stretched far to the east and west, covered in yellow-green grass and large rocks, with cave entrances visible here and there.

"Alright everybody," said Aludra. "Let's get looking. Tarazed, come with me. Rigel, you and Meissa go look over there."

"Whatever you say Aludra." said Rigel. "Come on Meissa."

The two pairs then began walking in opposite directions, scouring the ground for any of the deep blue stones. About an hour passed without anything being found, until Meissa saw a large pile of rocks and dirt with something sticking out of it that caught her eye. Climbing the dirt pile, she found what looked like a small yellow ball, which she tried to move with her paw, but it did not budge, as if it was stuck to something.

"What in the world?" she said to herself as she moved things from around the ball, revealing what seemed to be an antenna sticking up from a silver surface. "I don't think this is one of those rocks, but what is it?" She then began to dig more around the object, and jumped back when she uncovered what looked like a red eye. After seeing that whatever the eye belonged to wasn't moving, she reached out and touched the eye's center, which pushed in like a button. Meissa jumped back even further than last time as the eye began to glow and the object rose from the dirt. The object was silver in color, with three rotating u-shaped peices of metal attached to it and three eyes, the red one that Meissa had touched, and two smaller ones on it's sides.

It hovered in the air staring at Meissa for several seconds before speaking in a loud, monotone voice. "Startup sequence complete. Please enter name of operator."

"What?" Meissa said. "Name of the operator? What's an operator?"

"Affirmative." said the object. "This unit requires the name of the operator."

"Uh, my name is Meissa, but you still haven't told me what an operator is."

"Operator name entered as Miessa. The operator is the individual who dictates this unit's actions. Query, what is required of me?"

"So does that mean I'm your boss or something? Well, nothing is required of you. But could you tell me who you are?"

"Processing request...accepted. This unit's designation is Magna-Z1 unit number 2639, codename: Gauss."

"Well, hello Gauss, it's nice to meet you." Meissa said with a smile. "Wow I can't wait to show you to Rigel."

"Query, who is Rigel?" Gauss asked. "Name could not be found in memory."

"You'll find out soon enough, come with me."

"Command accepted."


	13. Chapter 13

"Hey Rigel, check this out!" Meissa called out as she walked over to her brother with Gauss close behind. "I bet you have never seen anything like this before!"

Rigel looked up from where he was searching, and was surprised by the strange object following his sister. "What the heck is that Meissa?"

"This is Gauss." Meissa said. "Gauss, this is my brother Rigel."

Gauss fixed it's gaze on Rigel for a few seconds, the red light in it's eye blinking repeatedly, before finally speaking. "Subject saved as Rigel, male sibling of operator Meissa. Greetings Rigel."

"Uh, hello." Rigel said before turning to his sister. "Meissa, what is this thing?"

"I don't really know." Meissa said. "I found him over there under some rocks, and he says I'm his boss now."

"How in the world did that happen?" Rigel asked. "He just made you his boss as soon as you found him?"

"I guess so." said Meissa. "He told me to say my name and then he called me his operator."

"Ok, maybe he could help us look for one of those rocks. I don't think Aludra would want us to stop just because you found something weird."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Meissa said. "Hey Gauss, do you know what an Aura Stone is?"

"Searching memory..." said Gauss as it's eye turned blue and began blinking again. "Aura Stone: Gemstone containing high levels of aura energy, known to induce evolution in certain species."

"Ok, so you know what they are." said Rigel. "Can you help us find one?"

"Processing request... accepted." said Gauss before it's center eye turned a bright green. "Beginning scans for aura radiation." It then began sweeping the ground with a wide beam of light as Meissa and Rigel followed behind it.

Meanwhile, Aludra was still with Tarazed, turning over stones and digging in the dirt in a different area of the hills, and not having much luck. "Do you see anything Tarazed?" she called to the Staravia, who was soaring high above.

"No, not yet!" Tarazed replied. "I'm seeing a lot of brown and grey rocks, but not much blue!"

"Darn it." Aludra said to herself as she sat down on the ground. "There's got to be one of those stones around somewhere. Hey Tarazed, what are Meissa and Rigel doing?"

"I can't really tell, they are kind of far away!" said Tarazed. "But there is a weird silver thing flying near them!"

"What is the thing doing?" yelled Aludra.

"I just said I can't tell, do you think we should go see?"

"We might as well!" said Aludra. "There doesn't seem to be any stones around here anyway!"

"Aura radiation detected." Gauss said as it's eye beam went into a cave in the side of the mountain. "requesting operator Meissa to come here."

"What, did you find something?" said Meissa as she walked up behind Gauss and looked at the cave.

"Affirmative. Sensors confirm aura radiation coming from within this cavern."

"Are you sure?" said Meissa. "I would rather not go into any caves."

"Probability of the source being an Aura Stone is approximately 97.4 percent."

"Well, if you say so." Meissa said. "Rigel, Gauss found one of those stones!"

"He did? Good, I was sick of looking at these rocks." said Rigel as he walked toward Meissa. "Where is it?"

"In that cave." said Meissa. "Gauss seems pretty sure it's in there."

Rigel approached the mouth of the cave and peered in. The cave was very large with jagged rock formations around the entrance, and Rigel could not see more than a few feet through the inky blackness within. "It's pretty dark in here." he said. "Although it's a cave, so I guess that is to be expected. Hey Gauss, could you help with this too?"

"Processing request...accepted." Gauss then floated to the cave mouth, and it's central eye began glowing much more brightly than it normally did, bathing the inside of the cave in red light. "Rigel and operator Meissa are encouraged to search quickly, as normal unit activity combined with prolonged use of extra illumination will drain this unit's power supplies, causing this unit to enter sleep mode for recharging."

The inside of the cave didn't look any different from how Rigel and Meissa expected it to look, rocky and gloomy, with more jagged formations jutting up from the floor, and even with Gauss's light, they could not see the end of the cave, only deep darkness where the light ended.

"Uh... ok Gauss, we'll try to hurry." said Meissa. "B-but maybe we should tell Aludra first."

"Name could not be found in memory." Gauss said. "Query, who is Aludra."

"That's Aludra." said Rigel as he motioned toward the Riolu coming towards them, being followed by a Staravia. "And it looks like she's just in time."

"Hey guys." said Aludra. "What's that?"

"This is Gauss." Rigel said. "Meissa found him under some stuff. He's kind of weird, but he thinks he's found an Aura Stone in that cave."

"Really?" Aludra said with excitement, before running to the cave entrance. "Well, let's get in there then!"

"Query, how is this unit "weird"?" Gauss asked. "No abnormalities are detected in operating systems."

"I call you weird because you talk like that." said Rigel. "I can barely understand half the things you say."

"Yeah, you guys go ahead and start cave diving." said Tarazed as he landed on the ground. "I'll just stay out here."

"What's wrong Tarazed?" said Aludra. "Afraid of the dark?"

"No, I just feel uncomfortable when I can't see the sky."

"Fine, stay out here then."Aludra said . "Everybody else, let's go!"

"You sure are bossy today Aludra." said Rigel. "You don't have to keep telling us what to do."

Rigel, Meissa, and Gauss then followed Aludra into the mouth of the cave, unsure what they would find in it's depths. 


	14. Chapter 14

Rigel walked slowly with his friends through the cave, guided only by the dim glow of Gauss's eye, and staying completely silent so he would not draw the attention of anything living there. He could hear the chirping and clicking of Zubat and Woobat around him, and every now and again he could see one flying overhead. He had been walking for several minutes, and the red light casting shadows of rocks on the cave wall began to make him nervous as he imagined things moving in the corner of his eye and stalking him in the darkness. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea." he thought to himself. "What if there's something in here? Something bad, like Durant." He then shook his head to try and get that thought out of his mind. "No, there are no Durant in here, I can't think about that. I've got to stop being paranoid." Rigel tried to stay calm, but he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched by the red eyes of large insects, causing him to start breathing heavily and darting his eyes around quickly, searching the shadows for things that weren't there.

"Rigel, are you ok?" he heard Meissa whisper, sounding just as nervous as he was.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." he lied, not wanting his sister to know just how scared he was getting. "Let's just find this rock and get out of here. Hey Gauss, how close are we to the Aura Stone?"

"Sensors indicate tha-"

"Quiet down." said Rigel. "Do you want everything in this cave to hear you?"

"Apologies. Adjusting volume to approximately 25 decibels. Sensors indicate that the source of aura radiation is nearby. They also indicate that the source has moved from it's original position."

"What in the world are decibels?" said Rigel. "Never mind, how could the stone have moved?" He then stopped short as he saw something in the dim red light. It was a dark, hunched figure, a little shorter than Rigel, looking away from him and holding a blue gemstone. The figure was dark purple in color, with what looked like crystals on it's eyes, back, and chest.

"That's it!" said Aludra, unable to contain her excitement. "That's an Aura Stone!"

Upon hearing Aludra, the figure quickly turned and fixed it's gaze upon her, before opening it's mouth, revealing a set of large triangular teeth, and shrieking loudly. It then turned and retreated with the gemstone into the darkness ahead, completely disappearing from sight.

"Come on everybody, after that thing!" said Aludra as she began to run.

"Aludra, wait!" yelled Meissa. "You don't know what's in this cave!"

Ignoring Meissa, Aludra entered the shadows beyond Gauss's light, closing her eyes and following the energy of the Aura Stone.

"Oh shoot!" Rigel said before running after Aludra. "Gauss, Meissa, let's go, we need to catch up to her before she gets herself hurt!"

"Affirmative." said Gauss. "Beginning pursuit."

Aludra could feel the stone getting closer as she began to catch up with the creature carrying it, and could hear it's footsteps on the cave floor ahead. "Finally, I'm going to be a Lucario!" she thought. "I've just got to catch this thing and get the stone." But the creature showed no signs of slowing down, and it let out another shriek as it went around a corner. After turning the corner herself, Aludra began to feel the Aura Stone's energy getting fainter. It was not getting farther away, but something seemed to be drowning out the stone's emanations, strange feelings of malice and hatred. She then stopped as the malicious feelings began to feel like they were coming from all around her, and she could hear the movement of things lurking in the deep blackness of the cave around her.

"Aludra!" Rigel yelled. "Aludra, where are you?" He ran through the cave as fast as he could while still staying in Gauss's light, with thoughts racing through his head of what might happen to his friend. After a few minutes of tripping over rocks and moving around stalagmites, he felt a great sense of relief when he saw Aludra standing in the middle of a large open chamber of the cave, but that feeling quickly left him when Gauss arrived in the chamber, it's light revealing several sets of large crystalline eyes staring down from ledges on the cave walls. Rigel could see the creatures all around him, with the one holding the Aura Stone standing behind another, much larger one wearing a scrap of cloth around it's neck. The larger creature glared at Rigel for a few seconds, then let out a screech that made Rigel feel sick to his stomach before it and about a dozen others descended from the ledges and rushed towards him and his friends with wide, toothy smiles on their faces. 


	15. Chapter 15

Rigel fired a Psycho Cut at the creatures as they ran towards him, but the blade of psychic energy passed through them without even slowing them down. "Meissa, go to Gauss and stay with him!" he yelled. "Hey Gauss, can you fight?"

"Affirmative. Combat systems activated. Targets identified as Sableye. Firing Flash Cannon." As Gauss said this, a beam of bright silver light shot from it's eye and struck some of the creatures, causing them to scatter and shriek in pain as they were blinded and burned. "Warning. This unit cannot function in battle for long. Extra illumination, internal weaponry usage, and normal functions are rapidly draining power supplies."

"Well then I guess we'll have to do without you!" yelled Aludra as she struck one of the creatures with a flaming kick. "Need any help Rigel?"

"No, I'm fine!" Rigel yelled back while dodging Shadow Claws from the creatures and biting them whenever he got an opening. He then felt something hit him from above. It didn't hurt much, but it surprised him enough to cause him to be grazed by one of the creature's claws. Rigel looked up to see some more Sableye on a ledge throwing rocks down on him. After biting another creature, Rigel sent a Psycho Cut up towards them, but rather than aiming for them directly, he aimed for the stalactites hanging above them. The creatures screamed as large hunks of stone fell down onto them, causing them to fall and destroying their ledge. They layed on the ground, killed or injured by the falling rock, as other Sableye ran over and devoured the crystalline formations on their eyes and bodies. "What is with these thing?" said Rigel, sickened by the sight of the creatures cannibalizing each other, before jumping out of the way of another Shadow Claw.

Aludra hit more Sableye with her Blaze Kicks before closing her eyes and looking for the one holding the Aura Stone. She could not feel the stone's energy, but she could see the dark energy of the Sableye moving around her and used that to identify the location of the creatures and strike them with powerful kicks and uppercuts, sending them flying into the cave walls.

"Warning. Power supplies exhausted." said Gauss after striking a creature with a bolt of electricity. "This unit can maintain extra illumination, but must enter sleep mode." It then floated down to the ground, the light in it's eye staying on, but all movement ceasing.

"No Gauss, not now!" said Meissa, now with nothing to protect her from the creatures. "Please, not now!"

Seeing that she was alone, the large Sableye wearing the cloth broke off from the group attacking Rigel and ran straight for her. She tried biting the creature, but she was no match for it, and she could do nothing but lie on the ground as it struck her repeatedly while laughing with sadistic glee.

Hearing the Sableye's laughter, Rigel turned to see it savagely beating Meissa, and ran to try and save her, but was taken down when three Sableye jumped on top of him, biting and clawing. Seeing his sister lying motionless caused Rigel to feel a crushing sadness, which combined with the pain of the his wounds and quickly turned into intense anger and hatred towards the Sableye attacking. All he could think about was how much he wanted to hurt the Sableye, to make them suffer. Unable to contain his rage, Rigel gave out a roar as a pitch black burst of malevolent energy exploded from his body, throwing the creatures left and right. The Sableye attacking Meissa turned to look at the cause of the commotion, and shrieked as it saw Rigel running towards it, his eyes glowing with a silver light even more intense than the light of Gauss's Flash Cannon, and his bared teeth covered in a haze of darkness. It was the last thing the Sableye ever saw as Rigel pounced on it and sunk his teeth into it's throat. After witnessing Rigel's fury, another Sableye nearby began running towards the shadows, but didn't get far before Rigel snuffed out it's life as well. With their leader dead and many of them injured by Rigel and Aludra, the Sableye began retreating through tunnels in the cave wall.

Aludra saw the one carrying the Aura Stone trying to get to a tunnel, and ran up behind it and kicked it in the back of the head, causing it to drop the stone. It then got up and fled at full speed into the darkness, leaving Rigel and friends alone in the cave chamber. "Alright!" Aludra said before walking up to the gem lying on the ground. "Finally, an Aura Stone!"

"Aludra, this is no time to worry about that!" yelled Rigel, ignoring his own wounds as he ran to his sister, who was still on the floor. "Meissa, are you alright? Please answer me!" Meissa was still breathing, but she didn't respond, and she had a deep gash on her leg that was bleeding badly. "Oh no, oh no." said Rigel as tears formed in his eyes. "I need to find something to put on this." He then remembered the cloth around the neck of the dead Sableye leader, and tore it off before getting Aludra to tie it around Meissa's leg. "We have to get her out of here. When will Gauss come out of sleep mode?"

"I don't know." said Aludra, picking up the Aura Stone and being enveloped in light. "But if I evolve I can carry her out." When the light faded, the stone had lost it's blue color, and Aludra stood at least a foot taller, with conical spikes on her chest and hands and four black appendages growing from the back of her head.

"Alright congratulations, now let's see if we can get Gauss up." said Rigel as he approached the inactive Magnezone. "Gauss! We need to get out of here, wake up!" He could hear sounds coming from within Gauss's body as it rose up from the ground and moved it's eye around.

"Sleep mode interrupted. Query, what is required of me?"

"Gauss, we need you to guide us out of here." Aludra said while picking up Meissa, careful to not move the cloth. "Your operator is hurt and we have to leave."

"Affirmative." said Gauss before it began floating away. "Retracing route into the cavern. Follow me." 


	16. Chapter 16

"Don't worry Meissa." Rigel said to his unconscious sister as he walked quickly through the cave. "We'll get you out of here and take you to that Audino that lives in the forest, she can help."

"Are you sure we should take her to Cebalrai?" said Aludra. "What if we can't find her? We should take Meissa to my dad."

"What could Asterion do?" asked Rigel. "This is serious, she needs an Audino."

"Don't you know that Lucario can use aura to heal?" Aludra said. "I'm sure my dad knows Heal Pulse."

"What?" Rigel exclaimed. "If Lucario can heal, then why in the world are we wasting time like this when you could heal her?"

"Don't yell at me, I don't know if I can use aura well enough yet! I might end up hurting her more than helping."

"Fine, we'll take her to Asterion, but first we have to get out of here. Gauss, can you go any faster?"

"Increased movement speed unnecessary." Gauss said. "Entrance of cavern in sight."

Seeing that Gauss was right, Aludra and Rigel rushed to the cave entrance out into the light of day where Tarazed was sleeping soundly.

"Tarazed, wake up!" Rigel yelled. "Now's not the time to be sleeping!"

Tarazed jumped as Rigel spoke, and was about to get angry at him before he saw the worry on his face and Meissa in Aludra's arms. "Rigel, what happened?"

"We ran into some things down in the cave that attacked us." Rigel said. "While we were fighting, one of them got Meissa alone and..." He tried to force out the last words, but the memory of the Sableye attacking his sister caused tears to well up in his eyes and made him fall silent.

"She's bleeding, we need to bring her to my dad." Aludra said. "Otherwise she might... we need to get going. Now."

"What are we waiting for then?" Rigel said through his tears as he ran toward the forest. "Come on!"

Rigel and the others ran through the forest as quickly as possible towards Aludra's home, ignoring everything they passed as Meissa's breathing grew weaker and weaker. Rigel's mind filled with dread as the same feeling he got when Tarazed killed the Dwebble began to resurface, that feeling of sadness, fear, and pain. "No, no, this can't happen." he thought."She's got to pull through, otherwise I don't know if I can..." He tried to push the horrible feeling out of his head, but it continued to gnaw at the back of his mind as he ran.

"Rigel, something's wrong!" Aludra yelled as she felt Meissa's life energy ebbing away. "Her aura is beginning to fade, we might not make it in time!"

"Don't say that! Don't you dare say that! Try to use Heal Pulse yourself if you have to, just don't let her go!"

Aludra tried to focus her aura and transfer it to Meissa, but she couldn't concentrate and run at the same time. "Rigel I need to put her down! I can't focus like this!"

"Fine then, do whatever you have to do! The rest of us are going to get your dad!"

Aludra then set Meissa down on the ground carefully, put both hands on her, and focused more than she ever had in her life. "Come on, don't you die on me." She said as she concentrated as hard as she possibly could, willing her aura to flow into Meissa. But as much as she tried, Meissa wasn't healing.

Suddenly, just as Meissa's life energy was about to fade away completely, Aludra felt a ghastly new energy start to build up as the cloth used to bandage Meissa's wound began to darken, becoming so black that it seemed to take in and trap the surrounding light. She watched in horror as the blackness of the cloth began to flow across Meissa's body like liquid and leave a puddle of shadow on the ground around her.

"No, Meissa!" Aludra yelled as Meissa began to sink into the puddle of darkness. She tried to pull the Eevee out of the blackness, but Meissa had been completely engulfed before she got the chance. The pool of shadow then began to grow smaller as a black mass rose from the middle and solidified into the shape of a quadrapedal creature. The creature was an extremely dark purple in color, with it's head held low and obscured by what appeared to be a hood, and what looked like tattered scraps of cloth hung from spots on it's body. After the creature had formed, what was left of the black pool began circling around it's feet and formed a shape similar to the upper torso of a humanoid as mischievious laughter filled the air.

The creature looked up at the stunned Aludra, revealing two bright yellow eyes that glowed with an unnatural light. After a few seconds of glaring at Aludra, the frown on the creature's mouth turned up into a twisted smile as it spoke in a voice that chilled Aludra to the bone. "Hello Aludra. Looks like you couldn't really help me. Oh well, no hard feelings I guess."

* * *

Meet Wraitheon. No points for guessing the type.


	17. Chapter 17

Aludra began backing away as Meissa took a step forward, her eyes still glowing brightly under her hood. The laughter of Meissa's shadow grew louder as it slowly rose from the ground behind her like a humanoid black sheet and opened what looked like eyes and a mouth, allowing Aludra to see things behind it as if the eyes and mouth were spots where pieces had been cut out. The shadow then began reaching towards Aludra with it's arms appearing to branch out and grow to impossible lengths. Aludra felt like running, but she seemed to be mesmerized by the shadow, and could only look on in terror as it's arms got closer. Suddenly, just as the arms were about to reach her, the shadow disappeared as Meissa quietly started giggling. Aludra then felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see the shadow mere inches from her face, which gave out a shrill scream that made her feel light-headed as she fainted from shock.

"Asterion!" Rigel yelled as he ran up to Aludra's burrow. "We need your help, please get out here!"

Hearing this, Aludra's father walked out of the burrow, and he only had to look at Rigel's face to tell that something was seriously wrong. "Rigel, what is it? Did something happen to Aludra?"

"No, it's my sister." Rigel said. "We got attacked by Sableye, and she's hurt really badly. Aludra said you could heal her, so we need you to come with us, quickly."

"Alright, where is she?" Asterion asked while looking around. "Did you not bring her with you?"

"We had to leave her with Aludra." said Tarazed. "She's trying to heal her, or at least keep her alive long enough for you to do it."

"So Aludra found a stone?" Asterion said. "Never mind that, take me to your sister."

Rigel ran with Asterion, Gauss, and Tarazed close behind until he reached the spot where he had left Aludra and Meissa, only to see Aludra lying on the ground with a shadowy creature standing over her smiling, the young Eevee he knew nowhere to be seen. "Hey!" He yelled angrily. "Who are you, what are you doing, and where is my sister!"

Meissa turned and looked at Rigel as she heard his voice. "Hey there Rigel, I was just having a little fun with Aludra here."

"How do you know my name? Answer me before I really get angry! Gauss, warm up those combat systems of yours, we may have a fight coming."

"Processing request... denied. Combat inhibitors prevent this unit from engaging it's operator in combat."

"It's operator?" Rigel said in confusion. "You mean that's...?"

"Thanks Gauss." said Meissa. "I knew you would recognize your boss."

"Meissa? What happened?" Rigel said. "How did you evolve? And what did you do to Aludra?"

"I don't really know how I evolved, and I just scared her a bit. I didn't expect her to faint, I guess I overdid it."

As Rigel and Meissa were talking, Aludra's father walked over to her and put his hand on her head before releasing a wave of pink energy. Aludra's eyes slowly opened to see her father, and she quickly sat up and looked around to find Meissa. "Rigel, stay away!" she yelled, still shaken from what Meissa had done. "She's got some weird shadow that will attack you!"

"Oh, hi Aludra." Rigel said. "Don't worry, she's not attacking, she just felt like scaring you."

"Hello Aludra." Meissa said, still smiling. "Sorry about that, I just couldn't resist."

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Aludra said angrily. "You don't just scare others just because you think it's fun! I should knock that stupid smile right off your face, or better yet, knock your stupid face right off of you!"

"Now Aludra," her father said calmly. "This is not something to get so worked up about. I see you've evolved."

"Hmph, fine." Aludra said, still glaring at Meissa. "But yeah, I evolved. I just had to beat up a cave full of Sableye to do it, and it wasn't eas-."

"Your statement is erroneous." Gauss interrupted. "You recieved assistance from this unit, operator Meissa, and Rigel. In fact, it is most likely that your life would have been terminated if you were alone."

"Ok, we beat up a cave full of Sableye." said Aludra. "Nothing gets by you, does it rustbucket?"

"Query, are you referring to this unit as rustbucket?"

"Yes I am, rustbucket. Anyway, I'm going home. Rigel, I suggest you take your spooky little sister and do the same."

"Yeah, I guess I should." Rigel said. "Hey Gauss, want to come with us?"

"Affirmative." said Gauss. "This unit will follow Rigel and operator Meissa to their place of residence."

"Ok." Meissa said as she walked toward home. "Now I've got two things to show mom and dad." 


	18. Chapter 18

Aludra walked with her father through the forest, discussing her future now that she had evolved. "Well dad, I guess I'm ready to leave now, aren't I?"

"You are always so impatient." Her father said. "What do you plan on doing if you leave? Do you even have a plan?"

"Uh, no." Aludra replied. "I haven't really thought about it much."

"Well you should think about it now." said her father. "You'll never make it if you aren't prepared."

"Fine dad, I'll think about it tonight. There's our clearing, let's go." Aludra and her father walked through the stones towards their home in silence, only speaking again once they reached the burrow entrance.

"Tomorrow I will train you with your new abilities." her father said. "So get some rest."

Aludra nodded at her father before lying down on her grass bed. She was tired from the day, but she stayed awake staring at the ceiling thinking about what she would do next. "Do I want to stay around here with my friends?" she thought to herself. "Or should I go somewhere else and make my life there? I wonder what Chase would think now that I've evolved." The thought of the Riolu she met the week before made Aludra smile, but she quickly shook her head and stopped smiling. "Why should I care what he thinks. He's just a wuss who can't stand fighting. If Rigel and I hadn't shown up, he would have just let Tarazed get eaten by that Larvitar brother of his. How in the world is Thuban his brother anyway? He really needs to explain that some time." She then rolled over and closed her eyes. "I'll have to talk to Rigel and Tarazed." she thought. "I'll find out their plans and go from there."

"I should probably go in ahead of you." Rigel said to Meissa as they approached their burrow. "Remember how mom reacted when she first saw the new me?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." said Meissa. "I wouldn't want them to attack me. Hey Gauss, where do you think you'll sleep?"

"This unit does not require bedding." Gauss said "Sleep mode will be activated wherever operator Meissa has space."

"Just saying anywhere would have worked Gauss." Rigel said as he walked into the burrow. "Wait here, I'll get mom and dad."He found his parents inside talking to one another about their day.

"Hi Rigel," said his father. "You're home kind of late. Where's your sister?"

"Mom, dad, I've got something to tell you about Meissa." Rigel said. "She evolved. She also found this weird thing named Gauss that says she's his operator or whatever."

"She evolved, really?" asked his mother. "Where is she?"

"She's outside." Rigel said. "I just wanted to tell you so it wouldn't be like when you found out I evolved."

"Sorry again about that, honey." said his mother. "But let's go see her. Is she a Vaporeon?"

"Well, no." Rigel said "I'm not sure what she is exactly, but it's definitely not a Vaporeon." Rigel then walked out of the burrow with his parents close behind and called out to his sister. His mother and father gasped upon seeing Meissa's new form, but the shock was soon replaced by happiness now that both of their children had grown up and evolved. After talking about the day's events for a few minutes, Rigel and Meissa's parents turned their attention to Gauss.

"Meissa, what is this, and where did it come from?" asked their father. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this."

"Greetings." Gauss said. "Subject not saved in memory, please enter subject name."

"Um, Erakis."

"Subject saved as Erakis, father of Rigel and operator Meissa."

"Dad, this is Gauss." Meissa said. "I found him over by the mountains buried under some rocks. I don't know how he got there, but he's made me his boss, so he does whatever I tell him to."

"Oh, alright then." her father said before turning toward the family's burrow. "We should get inside, it's getting pretty dark out here."

After about an hour of talking, the family all layed down to sleep, with Rigel volunteering to sleep on the floor now that the grass bed he shared with his sister was too small to hold them both. "Well, I guess I should get ready for that dream." Rigel thought to himself. "I've had it every night since I evolved, so I'll probably have it again." He soon drifted off to sleep, wondering what the strange recurring dream would show this time.

Rigel stood on top of the stone again, looking down on the landscape below. "Knew it." he thought. "I just knew it." This dream was much like the last one, with the bright sun obscuring his vision, but this time as he walked down from the stone, instead of a burrow in the distance he saw an odd structure, rectangular in shape and grey and yellow in color, with five figures that looked like the silhouettes of pokemon standing in front of it, two of them being quadrapedal and the other three being bipedal. The quadrapedal silhouettes were both blue in color, one of them being larger than Rigel, the other being about the same size as him, with the smaller one being a lighter blue, while two of the bipedal ones stood at the same height as each other, a few inches taller than Rigel, and were black and dark brown in color. The last silhouette was a light brown, and absolutely towered over Rigel and the other silhouettes. Rigel tried to speak with the figures, but they simply ignored him and walked into the structure as it's doors opened to reveal another figure. This one was white in color, and did not look like any pokemon Rigel had seen. The body plan was similar to a few he knew of, but he couldn't think of what this figure could be. Suddenly his mind began fogging again as the doors of the structure closed and and a strange feeling of anger washed over him. 


	19. Chapter 19

Rigel opened his eyes and looked around his burrow. The air still smelled of fresh earth, and he could see sunlight pouring into his home's entrance. Letting out a yawn, he stood up, walked out of the burrow, and got a drink of water from the small pond out front. It had been about a week since he left his parent's burrow and made his own, and he had begun feeling very bored. "Man, I thought being on my own would be a lot more exciting than this." He thought to himself. "But so far it's just like before, only more lonely. Maybe I should go visit Tarazed and Aludra." He then walked over to his berry bushes and ate a few berries before entering the forest towards Aludra's training ground. The forest was the same as it had always been, the emerald green leaves blocking the sky with light coming through here and there, the sounds of small pokemon being heard all around, the whispering of the wind through the branches, all these things Rigel used to comfort Rigel were now making him restless. "What should I do?" he thought. "I don't want to leave my friends, but if I stay here I think I'll go crazy." Soon he reached the spot where Aludra trained and saw her standing in the middle of a stone circle, focusing aura into spheres before throwing it at the stones. "Hey Aludra!" he called out. "How's training going?"

Aludra looked toward her friend with a look of annoyance on her face. "Hey Rigel, it would be going great if you hadn't interrupted me."

"Sorry about that." Rigel said. "I just needed to talk to you and Tarazed about something. Do you want to come with me to Tarazed's place?"

"Fine, you've already screwed up my focus anyway." said Aludra. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I'll tell you while we're walking." Rigel said as he went back into the woods. "It's important."

The two walked side by side as Rigel told Aludra about what he was feeling. "I've got to get out of here." he said. "I don't know why, but I feel like I've been here too long and I need to get away. It's like a weird voice in my head telling me to go."

"Really?" Aludra asked. "To be honest, I was wondering if leaving was good idea myself. I want to see the world, but I wanted to find out what you guys were doing first."

"Maybe if Tarazed is up for it we could all go." Rigel said. "A change of scenery would be great for us, and if we go together then we won't be missing each other. I guess we'll have to find out what he thinks."

Soon they came upon Tarazed's tree, and Rigel called up like he always did, then felt a tap on his shoulder. "You're not going to get me with that Meissa." he said without turning around. "Go scare someone else."

"Aw, you're no fun." he heard his sister say. He then turned to see her shadow backing away from him and sinking back into the ground. "What are you guys doing?"

"Waiting for Tarazed to get out here." Rigel said "Tarazed! Come on!"

The leaves in Tarazed's tree began to rustle as he made his way out onto a branch. "Do you guys always have to be so loud? Can't you just knock on the tree or something?"

"No." Aludra said. "No we can't. Anyway, we need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?"

"Well, we've been thinking," Rigel said. "Everything is getting so old around here, so Aludra and I wanted to maybe go somewhere else, see the sights and all that. We were wondering if you wanted to come with us."

"Where will you go?" Meissa interrupted. Rigel had completely forgotten she was there. "What will you tell mom and dad? Can Gauss and I come too?"

"Uh, sure I guess." said Rigel. "But we don't really know where we'll go, I just thought we would choose a direction and keep walking. Where is Gauss anyway?"

"He's back at home sleeping." Meissa said. "I figured I'd let him rest today."

"Can I answer the question please?" Tarazed said. "If you guys are going, then I want to go too. It's better than relying on Altair and Alshain for company."

"Ok, great." Rigel said. "Let's talk with our parent's about it and meet back here tomorrow, then we'll go from there."

"There's still plenty of daylight left." Aludra said. "Is it really necessary that we do this so early?"

"I don't know how well you know our mom and dad Aludra," Meissa said. "But trust me when I say that they will want to talk about this for a long time, so we had best get talking now so that maybe we could get back to our burrows by nightfall."

"Fine." Aludra said. "I guess I'll talk to dad and do some more training. Se you guys tomorrow."

"Bye." Rigel said as he walked toward his parent's burrow. "You coming Meissa?"

"Yeah, wait up." said Meissa. "Can't wait to hear what mom and dad think."

The two walked into their parent's home and spent hours discussing the matter, finally emerging from the burrow into the half-light of dusk, planning to go, with their parent's blessing, out to find what they were looking for in life. 


	20. Chapter 20

"Hey Meissa, if you're going with us, then what will you tell your friends?" Rigel said to his sister as they walked. "I'm pretty sure you should tell them."

"Yeah, maybe." Meissa said. "I don't think they would want to come along, but I'll talk to them tomorrow before I head to the meeting spot. There's my burrow, bye Rigel."

"See ya Meissa." Rigel said as his sister walked away. He then continued on in silence towards his home, thinking about what he would do the next day. He thought about all the places he saw in the first dream he had of the stone, and felt great excitement when he imagined himself seeing those places for real, but that excitement quickly passed as he remembered the other dreams. The strange silhouettes, the blazing sun, the creature and the Eevees, the anger and sorrow he felt when the dreams ended, he tried to think of what they might mean, but his thoughts were interrupted as he felt a sense of malice and hatred far more intense than what he felt while fighting the Sableye, then he heard a familiar sound, the sound of something putting weight on branches.

"Dad." Aludra said as she approached her father. "We need to talk. I've decided that tomorrow I'm going with my friends to travel the world and train. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I promise I'll come back some time."

"So you have your plan?" her father said. "It's good to know I've raised you to be strong enough to make that choice. While I'm not happy that you are going, I understand that you feel like you need to, and I'll be waiting for you when you get back."

"Wow, really?" Aludra said. " I thought you would need more convincing than that. Anyway, my friends and I will meet up and leave in the morning."

"You had better get some training in before you go then." said her father. " You want to be as ready as you possibly can."

Tarazed flew to the edge of the forest, where he saw the tree he was born in, with two Starlys sitting in the branches loudly arguing with each other over who was the tougher of the two.

"I'm way stronger than you, idiot!" one of them said. "You're the weakest one of all of us!"

"Weakest?" the other said back. "I could beat both you and Tarazed in a fight, so shut your beak!"

Tarazed gave out a sigh as he heard them. His brothers were the same age as him, but they always bickered and argued like hatchlings over the smallest things. "Altair, Alshain, I don't really want to get involved in this," Tarazed said as he landed on a large branch. "But I think I could beat both of you."

"What? Tarazed?" Altair said. "You evolved? No fair!"

"How did you do it, huh?" said Alshain. "You must have done something weird like finding one of those rocks. There is no way you could evolve before me!"

"Shut up, I'm not here to participate in your little squabbles." Tarazed said. "I'm here to tell you that I'm leaving this forest. You two don't need me here and I don't want to be here with you, so I'm going with my friends to wherever the road takes us."

"What? First mom and dad, now you're leaving too?" Altair said in disbelief. "Alshain, you're driving away everybody in our family!"

"Me?" said Alshain. "I bet it's you! You're such a pest!"

"Be quiet!" Tarazed yelled. "It's both of you, now goodbye." He then took off back towards his home tree as his brothers continued to argue.

Hearing the sound in the trees, Rigel quickly jumped to the side, dodging several razor sharp leaves that stuck themselves into the ground where he was standing. He looked up into the branches to see the Sceptile he and his friends had defeated, now with an ugly scar on it's face where Aludra's kick had burned it. "I see you've gotten bigger, you little disease" It said as it jumped down. "But it doesn't matter. Without your little friends to save you, I'm gonna make you feel just like I did when that Riolu did this to my face, and then I'll make you stop feeling entirely."

"Y-you're that Sceptile who tried to eat me." Rigel said as he got low to the ground in an aggressive stance. "I don't need my friends to help me now, lizard. I can beat you myself."

"My name is Varanus, not lizard." the Sceptile said. "Although I don't know why I'm telling you, it won't matter in little bit."

Rigel shot a Psycho Cut at Varanus as quickly as he could, but the Sceptile easily jumped out of the blade's path.

"So you've got new tricks too." Varanus said. "All they are gonna do is delay the inevitable." As he was saying this, the leaves on his arms began growing and sharpening again. He then rushed towards Rigel with his arms outstretched.

Rigel threw another blade of energy at his oncoming opponent, but had to roll out of the way as Varanus did a frontward flip over it and and landed leaves-first, causing them to get stuck in the ground. As Varanus tried to free himself, Rigel jumped on his back and focused malevolent energy into his teeth before biting down on the back of his neck. The Sceptile screeched in pain before throwing Rigel off of his back and opening his mouth to fire a volley of small seeds. Several of the seeds struck Rigel as he rolled across the ground, and while they didn't cause much injury, the spots where the seeds hit stung unlike anything he had ever felt. Varanus then gave an ear-splitting screech that made Rigel cover his ears in pain before walking over and cocking back his arm to slash at him.

Rigel looked up into the face of the Sceptile for a second before a wide grin formed on his face, and he began to laugh quietly.

"What are you smiling about, you little peice of trash?" Varanus said. "Finally accepted what's going to happen?" Varanus then felt a tap on his shoulder... 


	21. Chapter 21

Varanus turned to look behind him and let out a short cry as a large hand wrapped around his throat and lifted him off of the ground. The owner of the hand was a shadow attached to the feet of Rigel's sister, who glared up at Varanus with her glowing eyes.

"So you're the one who was making all that racket the other day while I was trying to talk to my friends." she said. "And you tried to kill my brother? Even more reason to teach you a lesson." Meissa's shadow then delivered a swift punch to the Sceptile's stomach before throwing him to the ground and forming an orb of shadowy energy in it's hand.

Before the orb could be thrown, Varanus jumped up and fired more seeds in Meissa's direction, catching her by surprise with his speed. Unable to get out of the way in time, Meissa cried out in pain as she was hit by the seeds, causing her to lose the concentration needed to keep her shadow together. Using the distraction his Bullet Seed gave him, Varanus ran off into the trees, not wanting to fight Meissa and Rigel both.

"Where are you going, coward?" Rigel yelled after the Sceptile. "All that tough talk and you're gonna run away?" He then turned to his sister as Varanus jumped into the branches above him. "Thanks, Meissa. I guess you've payed me back now."

"No problem." Meissa said. "Man, those seeds hurt. I'm heading back to my burrow, try not to get attacked again please."

"I'll try." Rigel said with a smile as he resumed the walk back to his burrow. "See you tomorrow." After several minutes of listening intently and looking around as he walked, Rigel entered his home and dropped down onto his bed, his body still stinging from the seeds. "Alright, now to get some sleep." he thought to himself as he rolled around, trying to get comfortable. "Let's see what I dream of this time." He soon drifted off to sleep, getting a feeling of peace that he could not quite explain.

The next morning Rigel woke up and looked around his home with his eyes wide. "Where's the stone?" he thought. "The dream... did it stop?" While Rigel could often remember at least some details of his dreams, this time he didn't recall anything, as if he never had a dream that night. "Oh Arceus, finally that dream leaves me alone, I thought I would never sleep without dreaming again." He then stood up and walked out of his burrow, smiling as he looked around at the trees. "Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye to this place for now." he said. "I sure am gonna miss it." After a large breakfast of Tanga berries, he took one last look around before walking in the direction of Tarazed's tree to meet up with his friends.

As he went, he looked around at all the trees, listened to the sounds of the forest, and reminisced about the days he had spent in this forest. He remembered when the first time he came out of his parent's burrow, the sense of wonder he felt while looking at the trees and the sky, and when he first met his friends in a shaded grove not far from his home. It was like it had only happened yesterday, he walked into the grove after hearing laughter, curious as to it's source, when he saw Aludra playing in the grass by herself. She was the first pokemon he had ever seen up close that wasn't an Eevee, and Rigel hid in the bushes where he thought she couldn't see him because he was shy and scared to approach her. After a few minutes, Aludra looked at the bush Rigel was hiding in and saw him peeking out, causing her to walk towards the bush to investigate. As she approached, Rigel tried to run out of the bush, but it had only been a few days since he had first left his parent's burrow, and he was still not completely used to walking, so he tripped over his own feet and fell before he got very far.

He could remember Aludra walking over and bending down with a smile. "Hello there." she said. "I've never seen you around here before. What's your name?"

"Um, uh, I." Rigel stuttered, trying to get the words out. "R-Rigel. M-my name is Rigel."

"Oh, well It's nice to meet you Rigel." Aludra said. "I'm Aludra, the toughest Riolu in this whole forest."

"Hi." Rigel said quietly. Even though Aludra's tone comforted him, he was still afraid to speak.

"You're not much of a talker, are you Rigel?" Aludra asked. "Anyway, I was getting kind of bored, and you seem a bit lonely, so do you want to maybe go do something with me? I've got a friend who you could meet too, he's really fun."

Rigel didn't say anything, but he nodded silently in response to Aludra's question.

"Alright, good!" she exclaimed happily. "Let's go find him, he'll be happy that I found some company."She then began walking away as Rigel slowly followed. "Hey Tarazed!" Aludra yelled after she had walked a short distance. "Tarazed, come here!"

Rigel looked around to try and find who Aludra was talking to, and quickly ducked down and covered his head when he saw a Starly fly over him. "Hey Aludra." Tarazed said upon landing. "Who's this?"

"This is Rigel." Aludra said. "I met him a few minutes ago, and he seems nice. He's a little shy though."

"Hello there Rigel." Tarazed said. "I'm Tarazed, pleased to meet you."

"H-hello." said Rigel. "It's n-nice to meet you."

"Hey, you actually got out more than four words." said Aludra. "Looks like you're improving already. Anyway, now that we've introduced ourselves, how about we stop talking and go do something fun."

Rigel spent the rest of the day playing with his two friends, feeling happier than he ever had before. He knew he would have to come back and play some more the next day, and that night he couldn't sleep a wink because of his excitement.

The memories of those days with his friends caused a tear to form in Rigel's eye as he approached Tarazed's tree and saw them and his sister standing under it talking, but now was not the time for thinking of the past, now he needed to look to the future, and the wonders and adventures it would hold. 


	22. Chapter 22

"Hey, look who finally decided to show up." Meissa said when she saw Rigel coming toward the tree. "We were about to leave without you."

"No we weren't." said Aludra. "Don't worry Rigel, we wouldn't go without you."

"Thanks Aludra." Rigel said. "So, which way are we headed? I was thinking we could go through those mountains off to the south."

"I can't think of anywhere better," said Tarazed. "So that sounds good to me."

"Me too." said Aludra "Well, I think it's decided, we go south. Personally, I'm done standing here, so how about we get going?"

"Impatient as always, huh?" Rigel said as he turned to the mountains and looked up at them, smiling. "Alright guys, let's go see what we've been missing." He then began to walk towards those mountains, followed by Meissa, Aludra, Tarazed, and Gauss, his mind filled with images of what could lie beyond them and hopes for the future.

The group walked through the forest for about an hour before reaching the mountains, and Rigel felt like he was discovering it all over again. He noticed things that he normally would have gone by without thinking about, small birds flying through the air, Zigzagoon and Lillipup running through the bushes, the occasional call of something he didn't recognize, now that he was about to leave this place, he wanted to take in every tree, every sound, every small detail of the forest he had lived in for his whole life. Leaving the trees, the group walked into the mountain's foothills and went higher and higher into them, far past the point where the green-yellow grasses ended, leaving rocky ground with patches of taller grass sticking up here and there.

"I wonder what's over this mountain." Meissa said as she walked. "Hey Gauss, have you ever been out of the forest?"

"Affirmative." Gauss said in it's usual monotone. "This unit has been in many locations, but memory files have been damaged. Detailed information can not be found."

"Well, that's ok." said Meissa. "I'd rather find out about these places myself anyway."

Soon the group reached a rise in the mountain path they were walking on, and looked down to see much of the path winding it's way through the rugged terrain of the mountains and disappearing over the top of an even larger rise. They also saw many pokemon they had never seen before going about their lives below, things like groups of Aron searching for metal, Geodude and Roggenrola hiding in the rocks, and Numel grazing on the sparse grasses.

"Looks like we've got quite a way to go." Tarazed said. "It sure is weird, looking around without seeing a single tree. Hey guys, I just thought, what are we going to eat? There doesn't seem to be many berry bushes around here."

"Oh crap, I didn't think about that." Aludra said. "I guess we'll either have to find some bushes or go hunting for something."

"Hunting for what?" Rigel asked. "I think the only thing we could hunt would be those yellow things over there, because the only other things I see are either really heavily armored, or they're just rocks. Besides, I'd rather not do any killing."

"Well, we don't really have much choice." Aludra said. "You don't want to go hungry, do you?"

"No." Rigel replied. "But I don't want anything to die because of me."

"Fine then." said Tarazed. "I guess Aludra and I will do it. What should we go after?"

"I'm thinking the yellow ones." Aludra said. "They would be much easier to bring down, and the other ones look like they would be too tough."

"Ok, yellow one." Tarazed said as he flew off toward a stray Numel. The Numel continued to graze as Tarazed drew nearer, but let out a loud cry when he descended and dug his talons into the Numel's back. Tarazed struggled with the Numel, pecking at it's head while being shaken around by it's thrashing, but let go and took to the sky again when he saw red light coming from within the hole on it's back. The Numel started to spout fire from the hole at Tarazed as he circled, keeping him at distance. "Hey Aludra, could you help here?" Tarazed yelled. "I can't get close!"

"Fine, but I think we have bigger problems." Aludra said, pointing at a charging Camerupt. "I guess hunting is not really appreciated here." She then formed an Aura Sphere in her hand and threw it at the Camerupt, striking it in the face, which only made it angrier. Suddenly, the furious Camerupt reared up on it's hind legs and came back down hard, causing the ground to shift and cracks to appear below Aludra, who dove out of the way as a large mound of earth erupted from below her. Tarazed then flew behind the Camerupt and dug his talons into it's flank, distracting it long enough for Aludra to deliver a jumping knee to it's face, provoking it even more. "Rigel, I know you didn't want to get involved in this," Aludra yelled. "But we can't do this ourselves!"

Seeing the trouble his friends had gotten into, Rigel hesitated for a moment before charging at the Camerupt while focusing energy to his teeth and jumping onto it's back, biting over and over. Soon, the constant onslaught of bites, kicks, and claws became too much for the Camerupt, who's body shook as it released a burst of lava high into the air and finally managed to get Rigel and Tarazed off. After landing on the ground and getting to his feet, Rigel fired a Psycho Cut at the Camerupt, who was too slow and injured to get out of the way. As the blade of energy was about to strike the Camerupt, Rigel closed his eyes and quietly spoke to it. "I'm sorry." He then cried out loudly as pain wracked his mind and body. 


	23. Chapter 23

After the pain had subsided, Rigel opened his eyes again to see the Camerupt lying motionlessly on the ground, hot lava spilling from it's humps. The sight of what he had done sickened Rigel, and he felt nothing but shame and remorse as he saw the young Numel running away with tears in it's eyes. "Oh Arceus, what did I just do?" he thought to himself as tears of his own began to form. "I can't believe I just..."

"Looks like we have dinner." Tarazed said. "Dinner that can cook itself, at that. Thanks Rigel."

Rigel said nothing, he only stood trembling as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that he and his friends had just robbed another pokemon of it's life for defending it's young.

"Hey, are you alright?" Tarazed asked.

"No, I'm not alright!" Rigel yelled. "Do you realize that this thing was probably trying to stop you from eating something it cared about? Never again, I don't care if I starve, I am never hunting or helping you hunt again!"

"Rigel, calm down." Tarazed said. "We did what we had to do."

"You keep telling yourself that!" Rigel said, getting even angrier. "You didn't feel it, you didn't feel the pain! If you could, then you would stop too! Now I'm going to find some berries, enjoy your Arceus-damned dinner!" He then walked away quickly, leaving his friends stunned.

"Did he really just say that?" Meissa said as she ran after her brother. "Man, he must be really mad. I'm going to talk to him, stay here Gauss. Rigel, wait up!" She soon caught up with Rigel and tried to talk. "Rigel, what is it?" she asked. "What kind of pain were you talking about?"

"The pain of something dying." Rigel said without looking at her, a hint of anger still in his voice. "It happened just now, it happened when Tarazed killed a Dwebble last week, and it started to happen before you evolved. I can feel it when something dies near me."

"Really?" Meissa said. "I had no idea, how terrible."

"But that's not the worst part." Rigel said as he stopped walking and the anger in his voice turned to sadness. "I saw the look in that yellow thing's eyes as it ran away. It just watched what could be one of it's parents..." He stood silent for a moment, once again thinking about what he had done, before beginning to cry tears of guilt and remorse.

"It's alright Rigel." Meissa said as she sat down in front of her brother and put his head on her shoulder. "It's alright."

Rigel sat crying on his sister's shoulder for several minutes before drying his eyes and standing up again. "Thank you Meissa." he said, the feelings of sorrow lessened but still there.

"No problem." Meissa said. "Want to get started on those berries?"

"Sure." Rigel replied. "But where would we start looking?"

"I don't know." said Meissa. "It's not like I know this pla-" She was then interrupted by a loud snorting and the sound of two hard surfaces hitting each other. "What in the world was that?" she said, looking around for the sound's source. "Oh man, if it's something else that's gonna attack us..."

"I think it's coming from over there." Rigel said, motioning towards a large rock formation. "I don't think whatever it is is after us, otherwise it would have come out before making any noise."

"Want to go check it out?" Meissa asked.

"I don't know." Rigel replied. "I really don't want to get into another fight."

"Who said that we had to fight?" said Meissa. "Let's just take a peek at what's going on." She then walked over and looked around the rock formation to see large bipedal creature repeatedly bringing it's large arms down on top of a smaller quadrapedal one. The larger creature stood more than twice as tall as the other one, and was covered in rocky armor, with a drill-like horn on it's face."Hey Rigel, come here." Meissa said. "Didn't dad tell us about something like that once?"

"Yeah, I think so." Rigel said after looking around the rock himself. "Big, grey, a swirl on it's horn, I think that's what he called a Rhydon. But what's that other thi..." Rigel trailed off as he looked at the other creature. It was about the same size as him, with light blue fur underneath what looked like clear crystalline armor, and iridescent eyes that glimmered in the fading sunlight. "That's that thing from my dream." Rigel thought to himself. "But why would that Rhydon be attacking? Dad said they were vegetarians. Of course he also said they were pretty bad tempered and territorial. I have to help it." He then ran from behind the rock, heading straight for the Rhydon while focusing energy into an orb on his forehead.

"Rigel, what are you doing?" Meissa yelled. "I thought you didn't want to fight again!"

Ignoring his sister, Rigel jumped into the air and crashed head-first into the Rhydon's side, the impact on his head softened by the orb of energy.

"Thank you." the blue creature said quietly as the Rhydon fell down.

"N-no problem." Rigel said back.

The Rhydon roared as it got back up a started spinning it's horn, but was then struck in the face by a ball of shadowy energy. "Rigel, you sure are good at ticking things off aren't you?" Meissa said as she ran to her brother's side, her shadow close behind. "At this rate, you'll have fought everything on this mountain in no time. Care to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Now's not the time Meissa." Rigel said. "That thing still looks really mad."

The Rhydon roared again and charged toward the three with it's head lowered. Rigel and Meissa quickly ran out of the way of the charge while the blue creature stood it's ground and got into a low stance, not afraid to take a hit. The Rhydon hit the blue creature dead-on with it's horn, but the creature only got pushed back a few feet, and it retaliated by causing several sharp pieces of stone to burst from the ground beneath it, which the Rhydon barely noticed as it began hammering down with it's arms again.

"Hey, how about you pick on someone else?" Rigel said before building up malevolent energy and firing it at the Rhydon, who turned to look at him with rage in it's eyes before suddenly getting punched by Meissa's shadow.

"Can't take us all, can you?" Meissa said. " You should probably just run, I wouldn't blame you."

"Meissa, I think we've may need to run," said Rigel. "This thing seems pretty stubborn, and I don't think it will run away." He then started looking around and saw a small gap in some boulders, before turning to the blue creature, trying not to look into it's eyes. "Uh, how fast can you run?"

"I'm not the best runner." the creature said before cracks began forming in it's armor. "But I can try." Most of the armor then shattered and fell to the ground, making the creature more maneuverable.

"Ok, good." said Rigel. "Meissa, can that shadow of your's cause a distraction?"

"Sure." Meissa said as she extended her shadow in front of the Rhydon's face. "No problem, get going." As she said this, Meissa's shadow began moving it's hands about and glowing with a dark yellow light, causing the Rhydon to start swaying and stumbling around. Rigel, Meissa, and the blue creature then ran as fast as they could into the gap, easily leaving the confused Rhydon behind.

* * *

This is Jeweleon, probably my last original Pokemon appearing in this story.


	24. Chapter 24

The three stayed in the gap for several minutes, listening and waiting until they heard heavy footsteps moving off into the distance and disappearing. "I think it's gone." Meissa said as she poked her head out. "Let's hope there's nothing else." She then walked out of the gap, followed by Rigel and the blue creature. "Well, now that that's over," she said, turning to the blue creature. "We should introduce ourselves. My name is Meissa, nice to meet you."

"Hello," the blue creature said after a moment of silence. "I'm Sapphire... Thank you for helping me."

"Uh, h-hi I, um..." Rigel stuttered, trying his best to say something. He couldn't imagine anyone more beautiful than Sapphire, and just like in his dream, he was so nervous that he couldn't manage to say more than a few syllables.

"Is there a problem?" Sapphire asked as she began looking at Rigel. Her eyes only made it worse for him.

"No, there's no problem." said Meissa. "That's my brother Rigel, he just has a hard time speaking to anyone he hasn't known for long."

"Um, uh, I..." Rigel continued stuttering. Soon he gave up trying to speak and just looked at the ground.

"Well... hello Rigel." Sapphire said, looking away herself. "Thank you again."

"Hey Sapphire," Meissa said. "Before we came across you, we were looking for something to eat. Do you know where we could find some berries around here?"

"Yes..." Sapphire said. "Follow me." She then began walking slowly to the west, closely followed by Meissa and Rigel. The sun was quickly setting on the mountain, causing the rock formations to cast long shadows as nocturnal pokemon began emerging from their homes. After a few minutes, the air was filled with the clicking of Zubat, the cawing of Murkrow, and the occasional howl of a Houndour. Sapphire, Meissa, and Rigel soon reached a small spring surrounded with bushes holding berries that Rigel had never seen before, oddly shaped and tan in color.

"Here." Sapphire said. "I hope you like these."

Feeling very hungry, Rigel picked and ate one of the strange berries, which had a spicy flavor that reminded him of his favorites, but without the hint of sourness that he was accustomed to. "Man, this is nice." he thought to himself. "I need to ask what kind of berries these are if I can." He then turned to Sapphire and tried his best to speak. "Uh, th-thanks uh, what, um..." But it was no use. No matter what he did, he just couldn't form the words. "Oh come on, is it that hard for me to say something?" he thought. "Thank you, what kind of berries are these? It shouldn't be this tough."

"Boy Rigel, I've never seen you this tongue-tied." Meissa said with a grin. "I've also never seen you trying so hard to speak. Any reason why?"

"N-no." said Rigel. Talking to his sister was much easier for him. "I j-just wanted to know what k-kind of berries these were."

"Oh, they're called Charti berries." Sapphire said before looking up at the rising moon. "Are you two going to be traveling any more tonight? It gets kind of unsafe around here after dark."

"It does?" Meissa asked. "Oh shoot. Rigel, what do you think Tarazed, Aludra, and Gauss are doing? They're probably worried about us."

"Excuse me?" Sapphire said. "Who are they?"

"Uh, f-friends." Rigel said. "Th-they're f-friends."

"Oh," said Sapphire. "Well, I've got a burrow nearby, and since you helped me, you're both free to stay there until morning, unless you want to go find these friends."

"Thank you." Meissa said. "Those three will be ok. Are you ready for bed Rigel?"

"Uh, yeah." Rigel replied. "We'll look f-for them tomorrow."

"Well, there's only one bed in the burrow." Sapphire said as she started walking. "So you two may have to sleep on the floor. Sorry."

"That's ok." said Meissa. "We don't mind, do we Rigel?"

"Uh, no." Rigel said "Th-thats fine."

After following Sapphire to her burrow, which was somewhat small and uncomfortable, Rigel and Meissa talked a bit more with Sapphire, learning that she had lived in these mountains for a while with her parents, but did not know what would be beyond them or how far away the end other side of them was. Rigel didn't say much throughout the night, and what he did say was short and stuttered. Soon after they finished talking, they were all asleep except for Rigel, who was contemplating the meaning of the dream in which he had seen Sapphire, which was stirring up details of the dream that he had forgotten shortly after waking that night.

"How could I have seen her in that dream?" he thought. "I've never seen whatever she is before now, so how is that possible? And if me meeting her in that dream was supposed to happen, what was with that weird feeling I got when the dream ended?" He lied awake thinking for almost an hour before rolling over and looking at Sapphire's sleeping form. "Should I try to tell her about my dream tomorrow? Was it my destiny to meet her? If so, then why? So many questions I just wish I could answer. I should probably just rest for now." He then closed his eyes and slowly fell into a deep sleep, where he was greeted by a familiar sight.

"Oh no, not again." He thought as he found himself on the stone again. "I thought I was done with this." This time the dreamscape he saw glowed in the pale light of a full moon rather than a bright sun, and a great stretch of water was layed out in front of him as far as the eye could see. Feeling confused and irritated at his strange dreams, and feeling as if he was going insane, Rigel yelled into the sky in frustration. "What is happening to me! Why am I having these dreams!"

After the echos of his outburst faded, a huge orb, looking like it was made of black, white, and grey liquid that flowed and shifted but did not mix, suddenly appeared in the sky, and a loud voice seemed to come from all around as Rigel felt like he was being watched. "These dreams are one of my gifts to you, Rigel." the voice said. "I have given you a sight far beyond that of most beings."

"What are you talking about!" Rigel yelled. "Who are you?"

"Who I am is of no importance," the voice said. "But I will tell you that I am the source of your powers, they are my gifts for freeing me from the monolith who's image you are currently standing on. I am now part of you, and I sincerely thank you for accepting me into your body and mind."

"I don't understand!" said Rigel. "I didn't accept anything! And what do these dreams mean!"

"I cannot answer that question. That is for you to find." the voice said as the orb began fading. "But know that the fate of many may soon rest upon your shoulders, and you will require the assistance of someone you will grow to hate. When we will speak again, who will say, but until then, remember what I have said. Now wake up Rigel."

"No, I still have questions!" Rigel yelled before his mind began fogging. After what felt like hours, he opened his eyes and quickly stood up, seeing he was back in Sapphire's burrow, with her and Meissa still sleeping soundly. 


	25. Chapter 25

Rigel stood in the middle of Sapphire's burrow, trying to understand the dream he just had. "Who was that voice?" he thought, "And what did it mean by someone I'll grow to hate? Who will that be, and why would I hate them?" He knew he would not be able to get back to sleep, so he walked out of the burrow and stared up at the moon just like he did several nights ago. "Why did it have to choose me? I was just an Eevee living in a forest, how could I decide the fate of others?" He sat thinking until the sun rose on the mountain, and Sapphire and Meissa soon emerged from the burrow.

"Good morning Rigel." Meissa said. "You're up early."

"I couldn't sleep." Rigel said. He wasn't going to tell Meissa about his dreams yet, he didn't want her to share the fears and uncertainties that they had given him. "Do you want to go find Aludra, Tarazed, and Gauss?"

"Sure," Meissa replied. "Thank you for letting us stay Sapphire."

"You're welcome." Sapphire said. "I hope you find your friends. Goodbye Meissa... goodbye Rigel." She then began walking back into her burrow, not even waiting for them to leave.

"W-wait." Rigel said without thinking. He had only just met Sapphire, but he did not want to leave her so soon. Sapphire stopped walking and turned to look at Rigel silently, waiting for him to say what he had to say. "Um, do y-you live h-here by yours-self? Uh, I mean, do you h-have any f-friends?"

"No, but I'm fine with being alone." Sapphire said. "Why do you ask?"

"W-well," Rigel stuttered. He was determined to say what he was thinking, and he wouldn't let his problem stop him. "I was th-thinking, um, maybe you c-could come with us."

"What, why?" Sapphire said with surprise. "You don't need me to come with you."

"Y-yes I do. Um, wait, I mean, y-you shouldn't j-just stay here your whole l-life. We are g-going on an adventure, a-and I th-think it would be nice if you c-came with us."

"That sounds like a good idea Rigel." Meissa said with a smile. "Come on Sapphire, we would be glad to take you with us, and I bet the others would love your company."

"Well..." Sapphire said before looking around at her burrow and the scenery surrounding it. It was clearly visible that she was debating what to do in her head. "...Alright, I guess there's no reason why not."

Rigel could barely contain his excitement as he heard this. "Y-you will? Great! Uh, I mean, that's g-good to hear."

"Ok, I'm sure Gauss, Aludra, and Tarazed will be glad to meet you." Meissa said. "I think we left them off this way." She then began walking to the west, with Rigel and Sapphire following silently.

As they walked, Rigel often snuck glances at Sapphire, and one or two times he thought he saw her doing the same. "Maybe now I can get to know her some more." he thought. "And maybe I could actually talk to her soon."

The three walked for about an hour, taking in the view of the mountain in the morning. Low clouds hung around the mountain's peaks, and small pokemon moved quickly across the rocky ground, never staying out in the open for long. Meissa gave out a shout as she saw a silver object floating around in the distance, and began running to meet her friends with Rigel and Sapphire close behind.

"Operator Meissa and Rigel found." Gauss said. "They are accompanied by an unknown subject. Please enter subject name."

"Hey guys." Meissa said . "Sorry we were gone all night. Anyway, this is Sapphire, and she'll be joining us on our little journey."

"Sorry?" Aludra said in an annoyed voice. "We were scared something had happened to you two. What would we do then, huh?"

"We really are sorry Aludra." Rigel said. He thought it would be best if his friends didn't know about his run-in with the Rhydon. "We met Sapphire, and by the t-time she had showed us where to find berries around here, it was getting too dark to be wandering around."

"Abnormalities detected in Rigel's speech patterns." Gauss said suddenly. "Scanning Rigel... increased body temperatures and pheromone production levels detected. This unit will analyze these findings and continue observation."

"Gauss, what are you talking about?" Rigel said. "If you're going to say something, then please make sure we can understand it first. Anyway guys, why don't you introduce yourselves?"

"Fine." Aludra said. "I'm Aludra, the best fighter here. Don't forget it."

"Sure you are." said Tarazed. "My name is Tarazed, nice to meet you."

"Scanning subject Sapphire... subject saved." Gauss said. "This is Magna-Z1 unit number 2639 codename: Gauss. Body temperature and pheromone production of subject are similar to those of subject Rigel. Storing scans for analysis."

"It's nice to meet you all." Sapphire said quietly. "I hope I can be a good friend to you."

"Ok, now that that's over with." Aludra said. "I want to see what's over these mountains, so let's get going."

"Patience really isn't one of your virtues, is it Aludra?" Tarazed said. "But I guess we should be moving on before nightfall."

The group of pokemon then found the same mountain trail they were following yesterday and resumed their journey, making their way through rocky passes and over small hills with the sun shining warmly above them, while Rigel was still thinking about Sapphire, his dreams, and what Gauss had said. "Body temperature and pheromone production?" he thought. "What does that even mean? That bucket of bolts really confuses me sometimes. But I guess that's not important. What is important is me telling these guys about my dreams without making it seem like I've gone crazy, but how would I do it?" As he pondered this, he remembered the dream with the silhouettes. "If I met Sapphire in my dream, then does that mean I'll meet whatever those things are too? That voice said it gave me a sight beyond normal beings as a gift, but so far that sight has only given me questions and worries, which is not really much of a gift." As Rigel was thinking, he and his friends passed several pokemon he was familiar with that caught his attention, such as Spoink competing to see who could bounce the highest, flocks of Spearow flying across the sky, and three young Machop honing their fighting skills in sparring matches.

"Hey Aludra." Tarazed said, motioning toward the Machop with his wing. "Think you could learn anything from them?"

"I doubt it." Aludra said as she looked at the grey creatures. "My dad taught me all of his best techniques, and what those little guys know is nothing compared to those."

Hearing this, the Machop stopped their training and approached Aludra before speaking to her with curiosity in their voices. "You know some techniques we don't?" one said. "What kind of techniques? Can you teach us?"

"Teach you?" Aludra asked, flattered that someone would want to learn from her. "Sorry little guy, but I don't really have time."

"Aw, come on miss, please?" another one asked. "We want to know them."

"I don't have time." Aludra repeated apologetically. She wanted to pass on her knowledge, and had good feelings about the Machop, but she didn't want to stop and hold up her friends. "I'm going with my friends to see what's over this mountain. Maybe some day I can come back here and teach you. What are your names?"

"I'm Sarin." one said.

"I'm Kajam." said another.

"And I'm Marfik." said the last one.

"Well alright." Aludra said, bending down to the Machop's level. "My name is Aludra. Sarin, Kajam, Marfik, when I get done with my adventure, I promise to teach you what I know. Ok?"

"Ok." the three Machop said in disappointment. "But could you at least show us one of your moves?"

"Well..." Aludra said as she thought about it. "Ok, just one move won't hurt. Could one of you go get one of those rocks over there?"

"Sure!" Kajam said with excitement as he raced over to a rock about the same size as him and easily lifted it from the ground. "Is this one good?"

"Perfect." Aludra said as she lifted her right foot. "Now throw it at me." Kajam tossed the rock as hard as he could, and Aludra's leg burst into flame as she hit it with a kick that shattered it into rubble.

"Wow!" the Machop yelled. They had never seen a Blaze Kick performed before, and they were amazed by the move. "That was awesome!"

"I'm glad you think so." Aludra said with a smile. "I'll show you more some other time. I have to be going now."

"Ok, thanks miss Aludra." the Machops said before going back to their training, trying their best to emulate Aludra's technique.

Aludra then went back to her friends, and they continued walking down the mountain path. "Man Aludra," Tarazed said. "I never knew you had a soft spot for Machops."

"Shut up Tarazed." Aludra said. "They wanted me to show them something, and I did. I was trying to help them be better."

"Whatever." Tarazed said back. "Let's just go see what's over these mountains."

Soon the group made it to the tall rise they had seen yesterday, and they all stopped and stared as they went over it and saw what layed below them. 


	26. Chapter 26

Stretched out before them were high hills and peaks that seemed to shine in the sunlight, leading down into a wide expanse of desert, barely visible through a violent sandstorm that was contained only by the mountains surrounding it, with a huge mountain to the west, billowing thick smoke and ash into the air, and a deep forest, much larger than the one that they had lived in before, lying to the east, with several large rivers cutting through it and flowing into the sparkling blue of the ocean. Rigel was awestruck by the scenery, and stood looking down at it for quite a few minutes. He had imagined what he would see over the mountains, but seeing it himself completely overwhelmed him. As he looked, he saw off in the distance, far past the forest, a cluster of strange structures spread out in front of a rocky beach. They were mostly square in shape, and came in all sorts of different sizes and colors, with one of them being a light grey in color and much taller than all the others. He could make out the shapes of a large amount of strange, unfamiliar creatures moving among the structures, all of them appearing to be tiny because of the distance. They came in all sorts of different colors, but most that Rigel could see were a dark red. He then began noticing more of them moving through clear areas all around the desert, the forest, and the mountain, followed by pokemon of all kinds.

"So this is what was over these things." Aludra said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. "Boy, we've got a long way to go."

As Aludra spoke, Rigel stopped staring out into the distance and turned to his friends. It wasn't until now that he realized just how long this journey would take, and how hard it might become. For a second, he contemplated turning around and going back to his forest, but he didn't come this far just to turn back now, so he turned and looked out over the world one more time before taking the first step down off the rise, following the winding path down into the shallow valley below.

"Well guys," Meissa said as she followed. "Looks like we have a few places we could go, so where are we headed? I'd personally like to see that forest."

"That's fine with me." Tarazed said as he walked, struggling to keep up with the others. "I'd actually have somewhere to rest besides on the ground. Could you guys slow down?"

"Couldn't you just fly?" Aludra asked. "You're a Staravia, you have wings, use them."

"Hey, if I were to fly then none of you would be able to keep up, and I don't want to keep circling back or stopping and waiting for you." Tarazed said. He then looked at Gauss floating ahead of him and got an idea. "Hey screwloose, how much weight do you think you can carry?"

"This unit is designated as Gauss, not screwloose." Gauss said in it's usual monotone voice. "This unit can carry approximately twenty-three kilograms of weight before movement speed is affected."

"What in the world is a kilogram? Whatever, how many of these kilogram things do I weigh? Do you know?"

Gauss's eye turned blue as it paused for a few seconds. "Searching memory... average weight of Staravia is approximately fifteen point five kilograms, well below this unit's weight limit."

"Ok then, would you mind if I ride around on your head a little while then, since you could easily carry me?"

"Proccessing request... accepted."

Tarazed then took of from the ground and landed on top of Gauss, sitting where one of it's side units met the main body. "Ah, much better. Thanks Gauss. Might take a little nap while I'm up here."

"Taking the lazy way Tarazed?" Aludra said, as she crossed her arms. "I guess I should have expected that."

"It's not laziness." said Tarazed. "I just see no reason to put in that extra effort when I don't have to. Don't be jealous because you can't do this.""

As his friends continued talking, Rigel began slowing down, letting them pass him and moving a little closer to Sapphire, who was walking slowly behind all the others. Her blue fur and gemstones glistened in the sunlight, and Rigel just couldn't keep himself away. "Come on Rigel, say something." he thought as he looked at her. All he wanted to do was talk to her, but it was like his mind just wouldn't let him. "I just don't understand it. I can easily face down an angry Rhydon to help her, but I can't even get some clear words out when I want to talk? What is wrong with me." "Uh, S-Sapphire." He said without thinking.

"What is it Rigel?" Sapphire said quietly as she looked at him.

Rigel tried to think of something, anything. He was so desperate to speak to Sapphire that he hadn't even thought of what he was going to say before. "Oh man, what do I talk about?" he thought. "Should I tell her about my dream? Apologise for not being able to talk to her? Come on, think." "Uh, Sapphire I, um, I'm r-really glad y-you could come w-with us."

"Thank you." Sapphire said, with what looked like a blush appearing on her face. "But I was wondering, why would you want me to come with you? You only just met me yesterday."

"Well, the truth is I, um, it's because I..." He wanted to tell her about how he had seen her in his dreams, that they were destined to meet, but he was afraid of her thinking he was crazy, so he decided to just try and tell her the other reason. "I-it's because I wanted to, um, talk t-to you a bit more, and I th-think that you're very, um..." He froze up before he could get out that last word, the one word he wanted to say. "B-beau-b-b, uh..."

"Very what?" Sapphire said, looking straight into Rigel's eyes.

"Uh, v-very nice." Rigel just couldn't force out the word beautiful, and he dropped his gaze to the ground with a sigh, kicking himself for being too cowardly to say what he felt. "You're very nice."

"Oh." Sapphire said, sounding disappointed as she looked away. "Thank you, you're nice too."

Rigel and Sapphire continued on in silence, occasionally looking at each other, then quickly turning away. Hours passed as the group walked through the shallow valley, with Meissa at the head of the group talking with Aludra, and Tarazed asleep while still perching on Gauss. The mountain path they had been walking on was slowly beginning to twist and turn more frequently while climbing higher, and Rigel soon found himself wondering as to where the path woud lead them as the smoke from the large mountain got thicker overhead. As the sun began to sink below the highest peaks, the group began searching for a place to rest for the night, but there was not much shelter in these mountains, and they made the decision to keep going through the darkness rather than sleep out in the open. While these mountains had been so beautiful in the daytime, they took on an eerie and frightening aspect under the faint moonlight that made it through the clouds of ash. The silence of the night made Rigel uneasy, and he jumped when the howl of Houndour occasionally broke that silence. He looked over at Sapphire and saw that she was visibly scared too, while Aludra seemed calm as she walked, and Meissa skipped ahead joyfully, as if she couldn't be happier. Tarazed was still sleeping while perched on Gauss, and Rigel frowned as he looked at him.

"Of course, Tarazed gets some sleep while we all have to stay up. Maybe if I tell Gauss to turn upside-down..." The thought of waking Tarazed like this caused a smile to form on Rigel's face, but he quickly shook his head and decided against it. "No, I shouldn't do that to Tarazed. He's my friend, even though he can be a jerk every now and again. I guess since he's getting rest, it'll be his job to find us some food in the morning." His smile reappeared as he thought of eating. The last thing he had to eat were a few Charti berries that morning, and his stomach was grumbling loudly.

As the group came around a bend, they saw something far ahead on the path. It was one of those strange creatures, it's upper body being white in color, it's lower body blue, with glass coverings over it's eyes and multiple red and white balls around it's waist. As it noticed them it began talking loudly in a high, nasally voice, seemingly unable to contain it's excitement. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, are those what I think they are? A shiny Lucario, a Magnezone, and some pokemon I don't think anyone has even seen before! I've got to have them!"

"What in the world is this thing talking about?" Aludra said. "Hey you, explain yourself!"

The creature didn't seem to notice that Aludra said anything, and it pulled one of the red and white balls off of it's waist and threw it towards the group while shouting. "Go, Ludicolo! Make these pokemon mine!"

After travelling a few feet through the air, the red and white ball opened as a red beam of light emerged from it and formed into a yellow and green creature with a wide mouth that seemed to be dancing and swaying for no apparent reason. As the blue and white creature yelled out the words "Razor Leaf" the Ludicolo began to spin quickly as several sharp leaves fired from it's body.

"Where did that come from?" Rigel said as he dived out of the way of the leaves. "Hey, what's your problem?"

"Sorry pal." the Ludicolo said in a cheerful voice. "Human's orders."

"So that's a human." said Aludra. "Humans don't look like I imagined they would. And they're dumber than I imagined too if they think one pokemon can beat us all." She then ran toward the Ludicolo and jumped into the air, aiming her knee at it's face.

Seeing Aludra's knee coming straight towards it, the Ludicolo quickly stepped to the side as she passed right by and landed hard on the ground. Using the opening given, the Ludicolo formed an orb of energy on it's head just like Rigel had done when fighting the Rhydon, and ran straight for Aludra, but was stopped as a shadowy fist emerged from below and hit it in the stomach and a wave of malevolent energy struck it in the back. Before the Ludicolo could turn to face it's new attackers, it was also hit with a bolt of electricity and shards of stone. Unable to withstand so many attacks at once, the Ludicolo collapsed as the human threw the red and white ball again, which opened up and released it's red light, which brought the Ludicolo back inside.

"Oh shoot, that didn't work." the human said as it took the other balls off it's waist. "I guess I'll use all of you!" It then threw the balls forward, which opened up to release a Seviper, a Volbeat, a Plusle, a Banette, and a Sableye.

Rigel shivered at the sight of the Volbeat, but his fear turned to anger when he saw the Sableye, and he fired another burst of energy as he ran forward with teeth bared and jumped on top of it. But before he could bite the Sableye, his ears were assaulted by an extremely loud buzzing coming from the Volbeat, distracting him enough for the Sableye to kick him off. Rigel layed writhing on the ground, tormented by the buzzing, until Tarazed flew by and struck the Volbeat with his wing before doing the same to the Seviper.

"Thanks Tarazed." Rigel said as he got back up and aimed a Psycho Cut at the Volbeat. "Take this you stupid bug!" Suddenly he was hit from the side by a Sucker Punch from the Banette, who quickly floated away before Rigel could retaliate, only to be hit by one of Gauss's Flash Cannons. Looking back to the Volbeat, he fired the energy blade, but was only able to land a glancing hit, with Tarazed coming around to hit it again.

Aludra and Sapphire were facing the Seviper and Plusle, dodging electrified tackles and poison while throwing Aura Spheres and large rocks. After ducking under a swing from the Seviper's tail, Sapphire began pulling rock and earth from the ground around her and covering her body with it, before turning it into hard, crystalline armor that stopped another tail swipe without even being scratched. As the Seviper repeatedly struck with bites and tail swipes, trying to get through Sapphire's armor, Aludra came up behind it and grabbed it by the tail, swinging it around and using it like a bludgeon to knock the Plusle out before slamming it on the ground and throwing it away.

Rigel kept fighting the Sableye, which was much tougher than the ones back in the cave, biting it with his energy infused fangs while it slashed him with Shadow Claws. Suddenly Rigel heard the human say to use Flash, and the Sableye released a blinding burst of light from it's eye crystals that caused him to stagger backward before hearing the human order the Sableye to use Rock Tomb. Rigel could barely see because of the Flash, but he heard the sound of a large rock being pulled from the ground, and was thrown back as he was struck by a boulder. Before he could get back up, he heard another rock being pulled up and tried rolling out of the way, but he was too slow, and he cried out in pain as the rock landed on his leg. His vision darkening, he saw the human reach into it's pocket and pull out another red and white ball, before cocking it's arm back to throw it. But before it could, Rigel saw the large rock on his leg get picked up and thrown at it by Aludra, causing it to fall backward as Meissa's shadow rose in front of it. The shadow, menacing the human with arms outstretched, was the last thing Rigel saw before he blacked out from pain and exhaustion. 


	27. Chapter 27

Rigel opened his eyes slowly to find that he was standing on the stone, which he had fully expected to happen. "Here we go." he thought. "Can't I get a break from this?" This time, the land before him was a barren and lifeless stretch of grey earth, and the sun in the sky was brighter and hotter than it had ever been before. "Hey, voice!" Rigel yelled. "I'm here, and I've got questions!"

The black, white, and grey orb appeared again as it's voice echoed all around. "Hello Rigel. I did not expect to be speaking to you again so soon."

"Yeah, well we are speaking again," Rigel said. "And I want answers, who will I need help from, why would I hate them? And what if I don't want their help?"

"You do not have a choice." the voice said. "If you do not meet them and help them, then much of the world will become like what you see below. Everyone that you love may perish, along with countless others you will never meet."

"But why me?" Rigel asked. "What makes me the one who has to do this? I'm sure there is someone that could do it far better than me."

"I do not know." the voice replied. "I did not choose your fate, I have only given you a way to see it. It was your destiny even before you found the monolith."

"How do you know these things? Just what are you?"

"I am merely an observer, watching the tides of time as they wash across the shores of eternity. While that may not seem like a satisfactory answer to you, it is the only answer I can safely give, because if I explained fully, then I doubt you would understand. Now our conversation must end, but remember that I am always watching you. Wake up, Rigel."

As Rigel awakened from the world of his dreams, he was met with a sight that was far better than anything he could see there. Even though he felt some pain in his leg, a smile spread across his face as he looked up to see Sapphire standing over him, who's worried expression quickly changed to one of relief as Rigel began to move.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Sapphire said before calling to the others. "He's awake everyone."

"Uh, y-yeah, I'm awake." Rigel said as he looked around, seeing his friends gathering around him, but there was one that was different. Tarazed was now almost two feet taller, with piercing red eyes and a red tipped crest growing from his head. "So, you evolved again Tarazed? What happened to that human?"

"We chased it off." Tarazed said. "After all of it's pokemon got knocked out, it ran away. Coward. Anyway, it pretty much abandoned it's pokemon. They're still out cold."

"Ok," Rigel said before starting to try and stand up. "If they were only following orders like the Ludicolo said, then they shouldn't atta- agh!" Terrible pain shot through his right hind leg as he put weight on it, causing him to fall back down.

"Rigel, are you ok?" Meissa asked. "What's wrong?"

"Agh, my leg." Rigel said through the pain. "Something's wrong with my leg. It must have been that Sableye's rock."

"Let me see." Aludra said as she kneeled down to inspect Rigel's leg. She closed her eyes as the four growths on the back of her head began to rise up, and she moved her hand back and forth above Rigel's leg as it began to glow with a pink energy. After several seconds of doing this, she opened her eyes and stopped movingher hand. "Ok, try standing up now."

Rigel tried to get up again, but fell as soon as he put weight on his leg. "Agh, that didn't help at all."

"Well, sorry." Aludra said. "Apparently I still haven't got Heal Pulse down. Hey rustbucket, can you figure out what's wrong?"

"This unit's designation is-" Gauss said before being cut off by Aludra.

"We know, Gauss, not rustbucket. Can you figure out the problem or not?"

Gauss focused it's eye on Aludra for a moment before speaking. "Negative. This unit is not equipped for medical scans, so diagnosis can not be made. Please refer to your nearest memory file not found."

Aludra looked at Gauss in confusion for a few seconds before turning her attention back to Rigel. "Alright, rustbucket can't help figure out what's wrong and neither can I. What should we do? We can't leave him here, but we can't just stay."

"This unit can transport Rigel." Gauss said. "Scans show he is below this unit's weight limit."

"Uh, ok Gauss." Meissa said. "I'm kind of surprised that you're volunteering rather than waiting for someone to ask, but I guess it doesn't matter." She then used her shadow to pick Rigel up, careful to not move his leg too much, and place him in one of the spaces between Gauss's main body and a side unit, facing backward.

"Well, this isn't the most comfortable place I've been," Rigel said. "But it will have to work. Where exactly are we going now?"

"Hmm, good question." Aludra said before walking down the path. "I doubt we could easily find an Audino or something around here, so we should probably just keep following the road and hope we get lucky. Let's go."

"This is not going to be a good experience, I just know it." Rigel thought as Gauss began floating after Aludra. "Why did Meissa put me on here like this anyway?"

"Are you comfortable Rigel?" Sapphire asked as she was walking behind Gauss.

"No, not in the least bit, I have a nice view though." Rigel thought, but he would rather not say that. "Uh, y-yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," Sapphire said. "I, uh, we don't want to see you getting hurt any more."

"That's n-nice to hear. Uh, Sapphire, would you mind staying h-here and, you know, talking with me? Things would get pretty boring without someone to talk to."

"Um... sure, I'd be glad to."

Rigel and Sapphire talked about many things while traveling on that road, completely distracting Rigel from the pain in his leg. Even though he often stopped and stuttered, he enjoyed every minute of the conversation, but in the back of his mind he could still hear the words of the strange voice, telling him that it was always watching him. 


	28. Chapter 28

It took four days for Rigel's leg to heal enough for him to walk on his own, and by then he and Sapphire had gotten much closer and more comfortable with each other, although Rigel still had some difficulties, and hadn't told her how he felt. The group was still in the mountains, but Tarazed told them that the large forest was close before going to find food. Now that he was leaving the shadow of the largest mountain, the formerly ash-filled sky was becoming blue once again. The time since his encounter with the human had been uneventful for the most part, though the group had met with Chase and Thuban for the first time in weeks the day before. Rigel was surprised to find that they were travelling with friends of their own, and he shared stories with them of his travels while Aludra stayed quiet and tried to look uninterested, and Tarazed and Thuban glared at each other. As he spoke with Chase, Rigel was getting a strange feeling from one of his companions, a strange black pokemon the likes of which he had never seen before. The black pokemon stayed back and stared off into the distance as if it was lost in thought, and Rigel could feel a malevolent energy much like the kind he used coming off of it, only it's energy was quite a bit stronger than his.

"I probably should have asked about the brother thing." Rigel thought as he walked. "That still confuses me." But before he could think about Chase and Thuban too much, his stomach began grumbling, interrupting his thoughts. "Where is Tarazed with dinner? It'll be getting dark soon. Does it really take that long to find berries in a forest? I bet I could find a whole bunch by now, although I guess he's the only one who can get to that forest right now, so I'll just have to wait."

"Hey Rigel," Aludra said as she came up behind Rigel. "I'm tired, when can we stop and rest?"

"You're tired?" Rigel asked in surprise. "How are you tired?"

"Hey, I didn't get a good rest last night," Aludra said. "Besides, we've been walking all day, so I'm tired."

"Meissa, Sapphire, are you tired?" Rigel asked. "Gauss, I don't think I need to even ask you."

"Well, a little." Meissa said. "I'm not tired enough to be complaining about it though."

"Alright then, this looks like a good spot to rest." Rigel said as he saw a mountain spring ahead of him. "We'll just have to wait for Tarazed now."

"Finally!" Aludra said as she sat down on a nearby rock. "I thought we would never stop."

"Oh, stop complaining." Meissa said. "Aren't you Steel types supposed to be known for endurance?"

"Hey, I didn't get any sleep!" Aludra said. "So be quiet!"

"That's your own fault." said Meissa. "You shouldn't have stayed awake all night thinking about Chase."

As Aludra and Meissa were arguing, Rigel walked over to the spring and took a drink of clear, cool water. "Ah, nice and refreshing, just as water should be. Hey, is anybody else thirsty?"

Aludra and Meissa ignored him, continuing their argument.

"Negative." said Gauss. "This unit does not require regular consumption of dihydrogen monoxide."

"A simple no would have been alright Gauss." said Rigel. He then looked towards Sapphire as she walked towards the spring. "Uh.. what about you Sapphire?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of thirsty." Sapphire said quietly.

"Alright, well... there's the water." said Rigel. "I'll just be over there." He then walked over and sat down next to a rock that Gauss was flying around. "Hey Gauss, what's going on with you?"

"Greetings Rigel." Gauss said. "All things are normal with this unit. Query: how are you?"

"I'm fine," said Rigel. "I've just been thinking lately."

"Voice patterns indicate that Rigel is under minor distress." Gauss said as it's eye turned green. "Body temperature and pheromone levels have elevated farther."

"Huh?" Rigel said in confusion. "What are you talking about, Gauss?"

"After reviewing my scans, it is apparent that Rigel and Sapphire are ready for-"

"Gauss, I would rather not hear about your scans, I have other things on my mind and I doubt I'll understand you."

"I am simply stating my findings."

"I don't really need to know your findings Gauss, could you just go to sleep or something?"

"Considering request... accepted." Gauss then floated to the ground, and the red light of it's eye faded.

"Sleep sounds nice right about now." said Aludra "I'm done talking to your little sister over here anyway. But first we've got to wait for-"

"Hey guys!" yelled a voice from above. "I'm back with dinner!"

Rigel looked up to see Tarazed flying down with a Seaking in his talons and a beak full of sticks.

"Alright! I'm starving." said Aludra as she walked over to where Tarazed was landing.

"Rigel, I know you said I needed to find berries," Tarazed said as he dropped the sticks. "But that will not do for me. Hey Screwloose, wake up! We need help cooking this thing!"

Gauss's eye lit up once again as it rose from the ground. "Sleep mode canceled. Query: what is required of me?"

"We need a fire." said Tarazed. "Mind striking those sticks with some lightning or whatever?"

"Considering request... accepted." Suddenly a bolt of electricity fired from one of Gauss's side units and ignited the pile. "Request fulfilled. Returning to sleep mode."

"Well good night, Screwloose." Tarazed said. "Now, let's get to cooking this thing."

After the group had finished their dinner and gone to bed, Rigel was still awake, just thinking about what Gauss had said. "Maybe I should have listened to him. He said something about Sapphire and I, and it might have been important, but I can't just wake him up now." He could have continued thinking about this for hours, but as he rolled over and looked at the spring, he saw Sapphire looking into the water. He silently watched her, awed by the sight of her blue fur and gemstones in the pale moonlight. "Maybe I should go talk to her." he thought to himself. "Something might be wrong." Working up his courage, he stood up and walked towards the spring. "Uh.. H-hi Sapphire, having trouble sleeping?"

Sapphire jumped a bit when she heard Rigel's voice behind her. "Oh.. Hey Rigel." she said as she turned to face him. "Yeah, I... I'm not sleepy."

"Well.. uh.." Rigel stuttered. He thought he had gotten to know her enough that he would have stopped stuttering, but looking into her big, iridescent eyes made him struggle with his words. "I can't sleep either, d-do you mind if I, uh... sit with you for a little while?"

"No, I don't mind." Sapphire said as she began to blush "I... I think I would enjoy your company."

"Uh, alright, good." Rigel said as he sat down next to her. They sat there for several minutes, neither of them speaking a word. "So, um, is anything going on with you that's keeping you from sleeping?" Rigel finally managed to say.

"No." said Sapphire. "I just like to look at the stars reflecting in the water, it's just so pretty."

"I can see something way prettier." Rigel said without thinking.

"What did you say?" Sapphire asked.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything." Rigel said quickly. Being so close to Sapphire was making him nervous.

"Oh, alright then." Sapphire said as she turned back towards the water.

"Come on, what do I say?" Rigel thought. "Do I tell her? What if she doesn't like me like that?" "Um, Sapphire." he said in a low voice.

"Yes Rigel?" said Sapphire as she looked at him again.

"Uh, well, I..." Rigel couldn't seem to find his words, he was captivated by Sapphire's eyes, and his mouth didn't want to work. "I, erm..."

"Rigel, what is it?" Sapphire said

Rigel continued to look into Sapphire's eyes and stutter, until finally he couldn't take it any more. Before he even knew what he was doing, he quickly moved forward, putting his lips on her's as Sapphire's eyes widened in surprise, and then slowly closed. After what felt like an eternity of bliss, the two opened their eyes again, both of them feeling the happiest they had ever been. 


	29. Chapter 29

"Uh, sorry, I..." Rigel stuttered. He could not believe what he had just done. "I don't know what c-came over me, I'm sorry."

"It's alright Rigel." Sapphire said as she smiled. "I... I was hoping you would tell me some time, because I don't think I could have done it myself. I didn't expect this though."

"Y-you mean you... like me too?" Rigel asked. "Well, do you mind if I, um, kiss you again?"

"Not at all."

As their lips met again, a memory of the feeling he got at the end of the dream in which he met Sapphire flashed through Rigel's mind, but was quickly lost in the flood of happiness and pleasure he felt with her. The rest of the world seemed to fade away as the two sat, lost in each other, and the remainder of the night went by like a blur.

Rigel awoke from a dreamless sleep the next morning to see Sapphire sleeping peacefully next to him. She looked so beautiful and serene in the morning light, and all Rigel could do was stare until she slowly opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"Good morning." Rigel said softly before standing up and stretching.

"Good morning to you too." Sapphire said back as Rigel walked over to her.

The two shared another passionate kiss before walking back toward the spring they had stopped at the night before, and it was only as he was returning that Rigel thought about his friends. How could he explain why he and Sapphire were gone? He didn't have much time to think before he got back to the spring and was noticed by Meissa.

"Rigel, Sapphire, where have you been?" she asked. "I woke up this morning and both of you were gone, I was so worried!"

"Uh, sorry Meissa." Rigel said while looking at the ground. "Sapphire and I, um, took a little walk last night. We got tired while we were walking and fell asleep."

"Um, yeah, right." Sapphire said. "We didn't mean to scare you."

"Well, I wish you would have told me." Meissa said. "I wouldn't have been mad if you woke me up to say where you were going."

"I'm sorry." Rigel said. "We, uh, we thought that we would be back."

As Rigel and Meissa were talking, Gauss silently floated towards them as it's eye turned green. After a few seconds of looking at Rigel and Sapphire, it's eye turned red again as it spoke loudly. "Changes detected in subjects Rigel and Sapphire. Saving scans for analysis."

"Gauss, what are you talking about?" Meissa asked. "What do you mean by changes?"

"Uh, I don't think he means anything." Rigel said quickly before trying to change the subject. "It's probably just the weird stuff he normally talks about. Where's Tarazed? Did he go to find breakfast or something?"

"Yeah, he did." Meissa said. "I don't know when he'll be back."

"Ok, I guess we'll just have to wait until he does then." Rigel said as he walked away at a hurried pace. "I'm going to go talk to Aludra. Coming Sapphire?"

"Oh, yeah, wait for me." Sapphire said as she followed behind. She wanted to avoid talking to Meissa about the night before just as much as Rigel did.

After speaking with Aludra for a few minutes, Rigel and Sapphire walked over to the spring and whispered to each other until Tarazed returned, holding small branches covered in red berries in his beak. While it wasn't the best breakfast Rigel had ever had, it was good enough for him. With breakfast finished and everyone ready to go, the group made their way down the path toward the large forest, confident that they would reach it before the end of the day.

As Rigel walked behind his friends, he could hear the faint sound of birds singing, a sound that he had begun to miss in the short time away from his home. "Hey Tarazed," Rigel said as a random thought passed through his mind. "Do you ever sing? I've heard a lot of birds do it, but never you."

"Uh, no." Tarazed said, not expecting the question. "Singing was never my thing. Why?"

"No reason." Rigel replied. "Just wonder- woah!"

Rigel stopped short as a Bidoof ran out in front of him, almost causing him to trip over it.

"Oh, sorry buddy." the Bidoof said. "I didn't see you."

"Uh, that's alright." Rigel said before stepping around the Bidoof and continuing down the road.

"I've never seen you around here before." the Bidoof said as it followed behind Rigel. "What's your name? They call me Jellybean."

"Jellybean? What does that mean?" Rigel asked as he kept walking. "Anyway, my name's Rigel."

"I don't really know what it means." Jellybean said. "A friend of mine just called me that one day, and it stuck. My friend is probably looking for me right now, but I'll go find him later. So, your name is Rigel? That's a funny name, I think you could use a better one."

"My name is fine." Rigel said, getting a little irritated by the small rodent. "Maybe you should go find your friend."

"No, he can wait. Come on, you need a nickname, I'll think of one. How about..."

"Do you always talk constantly to strangers?"

"No. Well, maybe. Anyway, let me finish. How about Rigelodeon? No! DJ Rigelodeon! No wait! DJ SpinarakRigelodeon!"

"What? That doesn't make any sense! Are you crazy or something? Oh hey, I think I here your friend calling from over there."

"Really? Great! Coming Dakota! Bye DJ SpinarakRigelodeon, talk to you again some time!"

"That was a mean thing to do." Meissa said after the Bidoof had run away.

"Just walk," Rigel said as his pace quickened. "For the love of Arceus, just walk before he catches on and comes back."

Soon after escaping the annoying Bidoof, Rigel heard another familiar sound, the sound of wind blowing through the leaves of trees. As he walked over a small rise, he saw that he and his friends had reached the foothills of the mountain, and now the forest was in sight.

"Finally!" Meissa said excitedly as she ran ahead. "Man, I missed the color green!"

"Operator Meissa." said Gauss. "I request that you wait for me."

As his friends went forward to the forest, Rigel, who had decided to tell Sapphire about his dreams, stayed back.

"Hey, uh, Sapphire." he said to her before she had gotten too far ahead. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure RIgel." Sapphire said. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, there's something I want to tell you. Don't think I'm crazy or something, but about two weeks ago I had a dream, and in it I saw three Eevees and... you."

"Me? How could you have seen me?"

"Well, in my dreams I have spoken with a weird voice, and it said that it has given me the ability to see the future, but the things I see are almost never very clear on their meaning. There's something else though. After I saw you, I got this feeling, like I had lost something very important to me. I don't know what it means, but whatever happens, I want you to know that I... I love you. I know it may be a little odd saying that, since we have only really known each other for about a week, but I can't think of anything that could describe it better."

"Uh, Rigel, I... I love you too, but you're starting to scare me a little. Do you think something will happen?"

"I don't know, I'm scared too, but I promise that nothing bad will happen if can help it. We should probably go after Meissa and the others, they might leave us behind if we stay here much longer." 


	30. Chapter 30

This new forest was much different from the one Rigel had known. The songs of the birds and the cries of the local pokemon all sounded different from the ones back at his home, and occasionally he heard more sounds that he wasn't familiar with, along with the voices of humans. Soon he and Sapphire caught up with Meissa and the others, who were all looking around this new place. Gauss was floating around whlie sweeping a green beam of light over the ground and the trees, while Meissa was low to the ground, trying to sneak up behind and scare Tarazed, who was chatting with a Mandibuzz on a low branch. Aludra was nowhere to be seen.

"Meissa, knock it off." Rigel said as he walked up to them. "Hey Tarazed, where's Aludra, and who's your new friend?"

"This is Ramphea." Tarazed said. " I was asking her what it's like around here."

"Hello." Ramphea said in a voice much more pleasant than what Rigel had expected. "So you're this Rigel Tarazed was talking about."

"Uh, hello." Rigel said. "Nice to meet you. Anyway, Tarazed, you still haven't answered my first question. Where's Aludra?"

"She said she needed to go think for a little while and that she would be back soon." Meissa said. "Then she just walked away."

"Why didn't one of you guys go with her?" Rigel asked. "Don't you know what could happen?"

"Rigel, it's Aludra." Tarazed said. "She can take care of herself. What's wrong? You used to never question Aludra's skills."

"It's nothing." Rigel said. "And you're right, she should be fine."

"Alright then." Tarazed said before turning back to Ramphea. "Now, where were we?"

As Rigel walked away from Tarazed, Sapphire came up behind him and spoke. "Rigel, why didn't you tell Tarazed about your dream?"

"Because I didn't want him to worry about Aludra. I know I told you, but I didn't really think about the worry my dream could cause until now. I'm sorry if me telling you about it is causing you to worry too."

"It's alright Rigel, I haven't really gotten to know Aludra yet, but I'm sure she'll be fine."

Rigel and Sapphire continued speaking with each other until the sun had almost set, and Rigel was overjoyed when he spotted a yellow figure walking out of the trees, glimmering in the fading light.

"Hey Aludra!" Rigel called out, unable to hide his relief. "Glad to see you're back!"

"I just went for a walk." Aludra said. She seemed to have something on her mind, but Rigel felt it would be better not to ask. "You didn't miss me that much."

"Welcome back." Tarazed said. "Now that you're here, Ramphea told me where we can find some food. Are you guys hungry?"

"Yeah, sure." Aludra said. "Lead the way."

Ramphea then led the group a short distance through the forest, stopping in a small grove of berry bushes. There the group ate their fill and got ready for bed as Ramphea left and the sun sank below the trees. Rigel layed down near Sapphire and whispered that he loved her before closing his eyes and desperately hoping to be taken to the world of his dreams.

As he found himself on the stone again, Rigel looked down to see a bleak landscape of dark grey rock with flows of lava, dried up riverbeds, and great fissures in the earth branching out across the sky was black with ash, obscuring the sun, but he could tell it was still burning with an unnatural intensity. He didn't wait long before calling out to the mysterious voice, and the black and white orb appeared again, standing out sharply against the darkened sky.

"Hello Rigel." The voice said. "I assume you have more questions."

"You're damn right I do." Rigel said. "What is the meaning behind the feeling I got after the dream where I met Sapphire?"

"I do not know for sure. I can show you your future, but I can only see the events. I do not feel what you do. I do know however that the events that will endanger your world are about to be set in motion, and you will be called into action against them soon."

"Fine! Bring on whatever it is! Me and my friends can stop it!"

"I regret to inform you that your friends will not assist you. Fate calls for you and six others, not them."

"What? You mean my friends can't help? Why not?"

"As I said, fate has not called for them. Your friends cannot help, and nothing you can do can change that. While I know you are not happy about this, you have no other choice, and trying to deny your responsibility will doom all that you love."

"But why? Why me? What could I possibly do?"

"Enough!" the voice thundered, it's normally calm voice gaining a hint of anger. "Asking pointless questions will not help anyone. To deny your destiny is to deny millions their lives, so you must go and embrace it. Now wake up, and know that soon you must join the others."

As the voice spoke these last words, the silhouettes Rigel saw in his earlier dream flashed through his mind one at a time, with different sensations and feelings appearing as they did. As the dark blue silhouette appeared, Rigel felt as if cool water was washing over him, the light blue silhouette then brought an icy chill, the black silhouette gave a feeling of dread, the dark brown one brought a feeling of aggression, and the light brown one brought peace and calm. The white silhouette, who's shape Rigel now recognized, brought no feelings and disappeared into blackness within seconds. And then something happened that he had never seen in his dreams before. Usually he woke up when the voice was finished speaking, but now in the blackness he saw a small Eevee. It did not look like any Eevee he had ever known, but it still felt strangely familiar. He watched as two blood-red eyes above a sinister smile filled with sharp teeth appeared from the darkness before the Eevee, who stared into the eyes, showing no fear as a laugh that made Rigel's skin crawl echoed all around. The Eevee and the eyes then disappeared as Rigel opened his eyes to the morning light. 


End file.
